Flossie Wong-Staal

“It adds to the joy of discovery to know that your work may make a difference in people’s lives”

Flossie Wong-Staal was a Chinese-born American virologist and microbiologist. She was born in Guangzhou, China, in 1946. In 1952 she and her family fled to Hong Kong after the Communist revolution. She excelled in science in school, but none of her female family members had ever worked outside the home. She moved to the United States at 18 to attend UCLA, where she graduated cum laude in 3 years. She earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from UCLA in 1972 and did a postdoc at UCSD. After her postdoc, she went to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to research retroviruses. In 1975, she became the first scientist to clone HIV and completed a genetic mapping of the virus, making it possible to develop HIV tests. She also identified that HIV was the cause of AIDS with fellow scientist Robert Gallo. In 1990, she returned to UCSD to start the Center for AIDS Research. Her research was essential in developing treatments for patients with HIV/AIDS. She retired from UCSD in 2002 to join Immusol, a biopharmaceutical company she founded with her husband. She was also named to Scientist’s ten superstars of science in 1990 and inducted in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019. She passed away on July 8, 2020.