Flossie Wong-Staal

Flossie Wong-Staal (黃以靜 pinyin: Huáng Yǐ jìng, August 27, 1947 -), born Yee Ching Wong, is a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist. She is sometimes credited as a co-discoverer of HIV along with Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier. She was the first person to map HIV. From 1990-2002, she was the Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). She is now the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Genomics for Immusol.cite news | title = Immusol Chief Scientific Officer, Flossie Wong-Staal, Ph.D., Named One of Top 50 Women Scientists | publisher = PR Newswire | date = October 15, 2002]

Early life

Wong-Staal was born in mainland China, but fled to Hong Kong with her family in 1952. While attending Catholic school in Hong Kong, the nuns asked her father to choose an English name for her. He chose the name Flossie because of a typhoon with that name which had hit Hong Kong the previous week. cite book | title = World of Health | publisher = Gale Group | date = 2000]

Wong-Staal was the first woman in her extended family to attend college. She went to UCLA, receiving her bachelor's degree in bacteriology in 1968, graduating magna cum laude. Wong-Staal stayed at UCLA for her doctoral studies, obtaining a PhD in molecular biology in 1972.

Professional career

In 1972, following the receipt of her PhD, Wong-Staal undertook postdoctoral research at UCSD. Her postdoctoral work continued under 1974, when she left to work for Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). At the institute, Wong-Staal began her research into retroviruses.cite book | title = Notable Asian Americans | publisher = Gale Research | date = 1995]

In 1983, Wong-Staal, Gallo and other NCI scientists identified HIV as the cause of AIDS, simultaneously with Montagnier. Two years later, Wong-Staal cloned HIV and then completed genetic mapping of the virus. The genetic mapping made it possible to develop HIV tests.

In 1990, Wong-Staal was named as the top woman scientist of the 1980s by the Institute for Scientific Information. Also in 1990, Wong-Staal moved from NCI to UCSD. Wong-Staal continued her research into HIV and AIDS at UCSD, and was named as chairman of UCSD's newly-created Center for AIDS Research in 1994.cite book | title = World of Microbiology and Immunology | publisher = Gale | date = 2003]

In the 1990s, Wong-Staal's research focused on gene therapy, using a ribozyme "molecular knife" to repress HIV in stem cells. The protocol she developed was the second to be funded by the United States government.

In 2002, Wong-Staal left her position as Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at UCSD to join Immusol, a biopharmaceutical company. That same year, Discover named Wong-Staal one of the fifty most extraordinary women scientists. Wong-Staal remains as a Research Professor of Medicine at UCSD. [ [http://www.immusol.com/company.php?id=2 Immusol ] ]

Personal life

Wong-Staal's last name is a result of her now-ended marriage to a physician. She has two daughters, Stephanie, born in 1972, and Caroline, born in 1983.

References

*
*
*
*