Flossie Wong-Staal (1947-2020) made historic strides in developing understanding of and treatment for a deadly epidemic.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s STEMinist made historic strides in developing understanding of and treatment for a deadly epidemic. The first treatments for AIDS were created as a direct result of her tireless research. Let’s talk about Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal.
Flossie Wong-Staal was born Yee Ching Wong on August 27, 1947 in China. In the wake of the Communist revolution, her family fled to Hong Kong, where Flossie attended Catholic school for girls. There, her teachers encouraged Flossie’s family to change her name to something more Anglicized. Her father chose to name her after a typhoon that recently hit the area.
Flossie showed early academic prowess and many of her teachers encouraged her to pursue a career in science. Despite the fact no women in Flossie’s family had careers of their own, Flossie’s parents were also onboard. With the backing of teachers and family, Flossie’s path was clear.
At the age of 18, Flossie moved to the United States to attend the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned a Bachelor’s in bacteriology with honors in just three years, then earned her PhD in molecular biology from the same university.
In 1973, Flossie moved to Maryland to work at the National Cancer Institute, where she started researching retroviruses -- viruses that put their own DNA into the cells of a host. She worked with prominent scientist Robert Gallo, who was spearheading research on a mysterious disease that had just entered the American population: AIDS.
In 1981, cases of rare illnesses -- like uncommon cancers and lung diseases -- were popping up in small numbers in the gay communities of New York and California. Scientists linked these diseases to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. But they still didn’t know what caused it.
Flossie and Robert Gallo were searching for the cause of AIDS in tandem with a French research team at the Pasteur Institute. In 1983, both the National Cancer Institute and the Pasteur Institute discovered the virus that would later be named HIV.
Though Gallo claimed to have discovered HIV, the Pasteur Institute accused him of stealing samples for his own research. This led to patent disputes and litigation that clouded the discovery. Ultimately, Gallo admitted in 1991 that the samples he used in his research were tainted by samples sent to him by the French lab -- so the two groups were working from the same exact virus.
Despite the controversy surrounding the discovery of HIV, Flossie continued her research and wrote dozens of groundbreaking papers. In 1985, she was the first person to clone HIV, which led to the first genetic map of the virus and a method for developing blood tests for the disease. She continued to break down the virus’s components to discover what each one did, which led to treatments like the widely used AZT.
Flossie moved back to California in 1990 to continue her AIDS research at U.C. San Diego’s Center for AIDS Research and became its chair..
In 2002, Flossie co-founded the biopharmaceutical company Immusol, where she served as Vice President and chief scientific officer for Genomics. She shifted her focus to work on treatments for another pervasive and difficult disease -- hepatitis C. At the same time, she continued to work as a Research Professor of Medicine at UCSD.
In 2019, Flossie was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She passed away on July 8, 2020. She was 73 years old.
Flossie Wong-Staal navigated the male-dominated world of medical research with confidence and skill. Even in the midst of a controversy, she helped unravel the mysteries of a notorious and deadly epidemic.
As always, we’re taking a break for the weekend. Join us on Monday to hear the story of November’s final STEM-inist.
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Talk to you Monday!