NOBEL LAUREATE DELIVERED DISTINGUISHED OPEN LECTURE ON HIV/AIDS
French virologist and Nobel Laureate Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi will delivered an open lecture on HIV/AIDS as part of The University of the West Indies’ Distinguished Lecture Series. The event, was hosted by CARISCIENCE (a UNESCO affiliated St. Augustine Campus based organization) and The UWI Open Lectures Committee, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medical Sciences, took place at 6pm on Friday 24th November 2017 at Lecture Theatre E of the UWI Teaching and Learning Complex.
Professor Barré-Sinoussi has been involved in retrovirology research since the 1970s and is renowned for her immense contributions to HIV/AIDS research. In 1983, she and her colleague Luc Montagnier discovered a retrovirus in patients with swollen lymph glands that attacked critical components of the body’s immune system. The retrovirus, which was later named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), was identified as the cause of AIDS. This discovery, for which Professors Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier received the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, was the basis for radical improvement in HIV diagnosis and treatment.
Professor Barré-Sinoussi, who has authored or co-authored more than 300 original publications and over 125 review articles, is currently Honorary President of the Institut Pasteur International Network and of the Virology Department of the Institute Pasteur. Up until 2015, she was Research Director at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Professor at the Institute Pasteur in France where she led research programs on HIV/AIDS pathogenesis focussing on mechanisms required to control infection and harmful responses induced by the virus. From 2012 to 2014, she was President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) whose “Toward an HIV Cure” initiative she had launched in 2010. Professor Barré-Sinoussi remains an active IAS member and chairs a number of international scientific advisory panels and boards. A member of the French Academy of Science since 2009, she was recently elevated to the rank of Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor.
Professor Barré-Sinoussi has long been a strong advocate for promotion of multidisciplinary and translational science in order to accelerate evidence-based public health interventions on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment. She is committed to facilitating training and technology transfer and to building capacity in resource limited settings and maintains long term collaborations and coordinates research programs in both Africa and South East Asia.
Professor Barré-Sinoussi presentation entitled HIV-AIDS – The Challenges of the 21st Century was open to the public.
Please see the following link to an article which was published on the lecture- http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20171127/features/hiv-victims-living-as-long-as-those-not-infected