Flossie Wong-Staal - Famous Chinese Americans

Flossie Wong-Staal (????????? pinyin: Hu??ng Y?? j??ng, August 27, 1947 -), born Yee Ching Wong, is a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS. From 1990-2002, she was the Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). She was co - founder and, after retiring from UCSD, Chief Scientific Officer of Immusol, which was renamed iTherX Pharmaceuticals in 2007 when it transitioned to a drug development company focused on Hepatitis C, and where she remains Chief Scientific Officer.

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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. She chose the name Flossie because of a typhoon with that name which had hit Hong Kong the previous week.

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 cum laude. Wong-Staal stayed at UCLA for her doctoral studies, obtaining a PhD in molecular biology in 1972.

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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.

In 1983, Wong-Staal, Gallo and her team of 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 moved from NCI to UCSD. Wong-Staal continued her research into HIV and AIDS at UCSD. In 1994 she was named as chairman of UCSD's newly-created Center for AIDS Research. In that same year, Wong - Staal was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies.

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 retired from UCSD and now holds the title of Professor Emerita. She then joined Immusol, a biopharmaceutical company that she co-founded while she was at UCSD, as Chief Scientific Officer. Recognizing the need for improved drugs for Hepatitis C, she transitioned Immusol to an HCV therapeutics focus and renamed it iTherX Pharmaceuticals to reflect this. 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.

In 2007, the Weekly Telegraph heralded Dr. Wong-Staal as #32 of the "Top 100 Living Geniuses."

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References