Robert Gallo

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Gallo was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to a working-class family of Italian descent. He earned a B.S. degree in biology in 1959 from Providence College and received an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1963. After completing his medical residency at the University of Chicago, he became a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, where he worked for 30 years, mainly as head of the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology. Gallo states that his choice of profession was influenced by the early death of his sister from leukemia. In 1976, Doris Anne Morgan, a first year post-doctoral fellow in Gallo's lab, was asked by Gallo to examine culture fluid of activated lymphocytes for possible production of growth factors. Soon she was successful in growing T lymphocytes. Gallo, Morgan and Frank Ruscetti coauthored a paper in Science describing their method, identifying T-cell growth factor (TCGF), later renamed interleukin-2 (IL-2) in 1978. This discovery allowed T cells to be grown significantly in culture for the first time. Gallo's lab later purified and biochemically characterized IL-2. This breakthrough also allowed researchers to grow T-cells and study viruses like HTLV, the first retrovirus identified in humans, which Bernard Poiesz, another post-doctoral fellow in Gallo's lab, played a key role in isolating. On May 4, 1984, Gallo and his collaborators published four papers in Science demonstrating that a retrovirus they isolated, called HTLV-III, was the cause of AIDS. In 1986, Gallo, Dharam Ablashi, and Syed Zaki Salahuddin discovered human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6). In 1991, following years of controversy, Gallo admitted the virus he claimed to have discovered in 1984 was in reality a virus sent to him from France the year before. By the end of 1992 the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) found Gallo guilty of research misconduct, but in late 1993 the ORI dropped the allegations because, based on 'new standards,' the evidence was insufficient to prove their case. In 1995, Gallo with his colleagues Paolo Lusso and Fiorenza Cocchi published their discovery that chemokines are potent and specific HIV inhibitors, heralded by Science magazine as one of the top scientific breakthroughs of the year.

Reader's Guide

Robert Gallo's significance stems from his central role in establishing HIV as the cause of AIDS and developing the HIV blood test. His earlier discovery of IL-2 revolutionized immunology by allowing T cells to be cultured, which was essential for isolating human retroviruses like HTLV and later HIV. Despite controversy over the priority of HIV discovery—Montagnier's group isolated HIV almost one and a half years before Gallo—Gallo's group demonstrated that the virus causes AIDS and generated much of the science that made the discovery possible, including the technique for growing T cells in the laboratory. A 1991 investigation by Hoffmann–La Roche scientists concluded that the virus used in Gallo's lab had come from Montagnier's lab, contaminating a pooled culture. Gallo was awarded his second Lasker Award in 1986 for 'determining that the retrovirus now known as HIV-1 is the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).' He is the only recipient of two Lasker Awards. In 1995, his discovery that chemokines are potent HIV inhibitors led to a class of drugs used to treat HIV, the chemokine antagonists or entry inhibitors. Gallo co-founded the Institute of Human Virology in 1996, which treats more than 5,000 patients in Baltimore and 500,000 patients at institute-supported clinics in Africa and the Caribbean. In July 2007, Gallo and his team were awarded a $15 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for research into a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine. In 2011, they received $23.4 million from a consortium including $16.8 million from the Gates Foundation and $2.2 million from the U.S. Army's Military HIV Research Program. Gallo was the most cited scientist in the world from 1980 to 1990, according to the Institute for Scientific Information, and was ranked third in the world for scientific impact for the period 1983–2002. He has published over 1,300 papers.

Did You Know?

• Gallo is the only recipient of two Lasker Awards, winning in 1982 and 1986.
• He was the most cited scientist in the world from 1980 to 1990, according to the Institute for Scientific Information.
• In 1995, Gallo and colleagues published the discovery that chemokines are potent and specific HIV inhibitors, which Science magazine called one of the top scientific breakthroughs of the year.
• Gallo co-founded the Institute of Human Virology in 1996, which treats more than 5,000 patients in Baltimore and 500,000 patients at clinics in Africa and the Caribbean.
• In 1991, Gallo admitted that the virus he claimed to have discovered in 1984 was actually a virus sent to him from France the year before.