Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Luc Montagnier for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, talked with Sai Gon Giai Phong as she arrived in Vietnam for a seminar on HIV/AIDS in HCM City on March 9.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (L) on her visit to HCMC (Photo; SGGP)

Asked why she researched HIV/AIDS, the Nobel laureate said that there was no option because she had conducted research on the virus since she was young.

At the time, scientists did not understand the cause of AIDS. Scientists were unsure what they should pay attention to and whether the disease was caused by a lentivirus of a man who came to the Paris Pasteur Institute, it was these issues that flamed her scientific career. 

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was a big surprise for her. She did not truly believe until relatives and friends phoned to congratulate her. However, the prize recalled memory of patients who died before her scientific achievements.

She hopes that successful treatment for the disease will come soon. Currently, scientists have discovered some possible ways to cure HIV/AIDS. They have also helped to reduce transmission of the disease from mother to child and create quick tests for afflicted HIV children.

Vietnam has made progress in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. In the last two years, the country has produced national strategies that have recorded some success.

She feels the government is strongly committed to improving HIV/AIDS afflicted patients’ health.

The country has tried to reduce the risk of the disease spreading among drug addicts through a drug treatment program using methadol, a medication therapy for individuals addicted to opiates that provides an alternative to methadone.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, born in July 30, 1947 in Paris, France, was awarded her Masters in 1974 and worked as a researcher at the Health and Medical Research National Institute (INSERM). The female Nobel laureate is Emeritus Professor at the Pasteur Institute and Emeritus Director of Research at the the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She heads the Retroviral Infection Control Unit of the Pasteur Institute, and is also President of the Scientific Committee of the National Agency for AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Research (ANRS) and head of the ANRS site in South East. In 1983, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier isolated lymph node cells from AIDS patients, as well as a novel retrovirus, which they named the lymphadenopathy-associated virus. It was later renamed HIV. She has published 216 articles in international scientific journals, has presented more than 250 papers at international conferences and has 17 patents. Her team of around 20 scientists is currently working on how the virus is transmitted from mother to child. They are studying innate mechanisms that control HIV infection and on HIV-related simian viruses that infect monkeys.