Francuska virologinja koja je dobila Nobelovu nagradu za medicinu 2008.godine.

Ujedno i direktorica "Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales" u Institutu Pasteur u Parisu.

Rođena je u Parisu, Francuska. Obavila je temeljni rad u identifikaciji HIV-a, kao uzročnika AIDS-a. 2008. godine joj je dodijeljena Nobelova nagrada u fiziologiji ili medicini, zajedno s njezinim šefom Luc Montagnierom, za otkriće HIV-a.

Mlada virologinja na pragu svojih uspješnih otkrića.

Pridružila se Pasteur institutu, ranih 70-ih. Njezino istraživanje se ubrzo okrenulo određenoj grupi virusa "retrovirusima". Njezino znanje u ovom polju je dovelo do otkrića AIDSa 1983.godine. Ovo istraživanje je pokazalo hitnu potrebu za dijagnostičkim testovima za kontrolu ove bolesti. Radila je na čimbeniku urođenog imunološkog sustava u čovjeku, da bi se kontrolirao HIV / AIDS, kao i na prijenosu AIDS-a s majke na dijete. Autorizirala je 216 znanstvenih publikacija , sudjelovala u 250 internacionalnih konferencija i usavršavala mnoge mlade znanstvenike.

Aktivno je obavila donacije nekoliko znanstvenih društava na Institutu Pasteur, kao i drugim AIDS organizacijama, poput Nacionalne agencije za AIDS istraživanja u Francuskoj. Izvršila je utjecaj na internacionalnoj razini, kao konzultant u WHO i UNAIDS- HIV.

Ostala je nasmješena i vesela

Od 1980-ih je inicirala suradnje s zemljama u razvoju, te organizirala multidisciplinarne mreže. Konstantno radi na uspostavljanju trajnih veza između osnovnog i kliničkog istraživanja, s ciljem postizanja konkretnih poboljšanja u područjima prevencije, kliničke njege i terapije.

IZVOR: američka Wikipedia

INTERVIEW S FRANCOISE BARRE SINOUSSI

BE FRANCE : Will the Nobel Prize for Medicine change your life?

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi - Absolutely. Actually, ever since last October 6, it has. Twenty-five years ago, my life had already changed with the discovery of HIV-AIDS. I often say that I had one life before 1983 and one life after the discovery of the virus that literally revolutionized my professional and personal life. Two years later, my discovery of Africa during a visit to the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world, brought even greater change. I was able to see firsthand the terrible situation - not only of the country and its population - but of its patients, medical and healthcare personnel. For a scientist working mainly in her lab, it is unusual to be faced with physicians and their patients. But the discovery of HIV-AIDS opened my eyes to this world, which in turn gave a totally different bent to my research, focussed more on applications.

That was when I fully understood what is called the "Pasteur Tradition" that encompasses everything from very fundamental research to its applications, and from education to knowledge transfer, to the most underprivileged countries, as well. For twenty-five years, I have been working according to visionary Louis Pasteur's model, an effort that has today been rewarded with the Nobel Prize for Medicine to two Pasteur researchers.

BE FRANCE : What does the Nobel Prize mean to you?

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi - I feel a huge responsibility in accepting a prestigious award such as the Nobel prize for Medicine, especially as it offers me the opportunity to be the international spokesperson for a scientific and medical community addressing decision-makers worldwide and the public, and to be heard. It is also an opportunity to kindle young people's passion for research, a topic to which I am very attached. Because those who will be carrying on our work have to be trained, they will be the ones to inject much needed creativity in the coming years. However, creativity involves the emergence of young researchers with a new outlook, i.e., more likely to come up with original ideas. Creativity may also come with the arrival of experienced researchers from other fields such as immunology or genetics.

BE FRANCE : Can the Prize also play a scientific role, by speeding up HIV-AIDS research?

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi - It is mainly an opportunity to develop new international cooperation projects and prompt scientists in very different fields to work together on pathologies such as AIDS in particular, and on infectious diseases, in general. I am convinced that current and future research will be multidisciplinary and multi-institutional, which requires and will require increasing specialization. However, if the fields do not work closely together, it will be harder to make research advance. We must not forget that the progress that has been made over the past twenty-five years is the result of a multidisciplinary network that quickly grew up around HIV-AIDS, bringing together clinicians, fundamental researchers, immunologists, and molecular biologists, who marshaled their efforts to deal with the emergency.

 Intervju

Kristina Zolota