Since 1996, Dr. Robert C. Gallo has been Director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Previously (for 30 years) he was at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Gallo’s career long interest has followed one theme: the study of the basic biology of human blood cells, their normal and abnormal growth, and the causes of abnormal growth whether excessive; e.g., leukemias or insufficient, e.g., immune deficiencies.

Dr. Gallo and his co-workers opened and pioneered the field of human retrovirology when in 1980 they discovered the first human retrovirus (HTLV-1) and with others showed it was a cause of a particular form of human leukemia. (This was the first, and to date, the only known human leukemia virus and one of the few known viruses shown to cause a human cancer). A year later, he and his group discovered the second known human retrovirus (HTLV-2). Dr. Gallo and his colleagues also independently discovered HIV (the 3rd known human retrovirus), and provided the first results to show that HIV was the cause of AIDS. They also developed the life saving HIV blood test (1983-1984).

The discoveries of all human retroviruses, including HIV, were to a great extent dependent on being able to grow human T-cells (lymphocytes) in the laboratory, and this was achieved by the use of a growth factor called Interleukin-2 or IL-2. Dr. Gallo and his co-workers discovered Interleukin-2 in 1976, thus setting the stage for all groups to culture human T-cells. Today IL-2 is used not only in laboratory experiments, but also in some therapies for cancer and AIDS.

In 1995, he and his colleagues discovered the first natural (endogenous) inhibitors of HIV, namely some of the beta chemokines. This discovery helped in the later discovery of the HIV co-receptor, CCR5, and opened up entire new approaches to treatment of HIV disease.

Also, Dr. Gallo, along with his colleague, D. Ablashi, discovered in 1986 the first new human retrovirus in more than twenty-five years, Human Herpes Virus-6 (HHV-6). This is now known to cause Roseola in infants and is a candidate for involvement in several other diseases.

Main Recognition

Dr. Gallo has been awarded 20 honorary doctorates from universities in the United States, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Peru, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, and Argentina. He is a member of numerous professional and honorary societies including the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Medicine (Glasgow, Scotland), and the Royal Society of Medicine (Brussels, Belgium) among several others, and a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

He has received numerous major scientific honors and awards, for example uniquely the most prestigious U.S. award, the Albert Lasker Prize awarded twice (1982, 1986), General Motors Cancer Research Prize 1984, Gairdner Foundation International Award 1987, The Japan Prize of Science and Technology, Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 1999, and most recently the World Health Award from President Gorbachev in Vienna in November 2001. He was the most cited scientist in the world 1980-1990, according to the Institute for Scientific Information (Science July 27, 1990, p. 358).

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