Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

FRENCH VIROLOGIST

French virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her co-discovery, with Luc Montagnier, of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the retrovirus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

PRIMARY FIELD: Biology

SPECIALTY: Virology

Early Life

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi was born Françoise Sinoussi to Roger Sinoussi and Jeanine Fau Sinoussi on July 30, 1947, in Paris, France. Though a native Parisian, she spent her childhood summers in rural Auvergne, where she became a devoted observer of the natural world.

As a student, Barré-Sinoussi showed a strong predilection for scientific subjects. After graduating high school in 1966, she was torn between pursuing a college degree in science or medicine. Reasoning that medical studies would place a financial burden on her parents, she opted for coursework in the natural sciences at the University of Paris. As college graduation approached, Barré-Sinoussi wondered whether a research career working in a laboratory was right for her. To find out, she decided to volunteer in one. At first, no lab was willing to take her. Only after months of searching and a tip from a friend did she find a lab willing to accept her services.

Located in the Paris suburb of Marnes-la-Coquette, the lab was a branch of the Pasteur Institute. Barré-Sinoussi joined a team led by Jean Claude Chermann. The focus of their study was retroviruses and cancer in mice. Inspired by Chermann, Barré-Sinoussi spent so much time at the lab that she neglected her university studies and stopped attending classes. She only appeared on campus to pass her final exams.

Impressed with Barré-Sinoussi’s efforts, Chermann encouraged her to pursue a PhD. Without quitting the lab, she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Paris in 1974. Her thesis focused on how, in a cultured sample, a synthetic molecule could be used to control leukemia caused by the Friend virus.

Following a year of postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Maryland, Barré-Sinoussi returned to Paris and rejoined Chermann’s lab, working on a team led by Luc Montagnier. On October 7, 1978, she married Jean-Claude Barré, a man she had met while working toward her PhD.

Life’s Work

In the early 1980s, Willy Rozenbaum, a Paris doctor, confronted a disturbing trend. Many of his patients were coming in suffering from unusual illnesses. The variety of symptoms almost defied logic, but the end result was uniformly horrific. Despite Rozenbaum’s best efforts, his patients were dying, the mysterious illness destroying their immune systems. Other than the shared immunodeficiency, the one commonality that connected most of the early cases was that the affected patients were predominantly male and homosexual. A similar outbreak in the same demographic had first been reported in the United States in 1981. Across the globe, more cases were being observed; the disease, now known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), was spreading at an alarming rate.

Françoise Brun-Vézinet, a virologist who worked with Rozenbaum, wondered if a retrovirus might be the culprit. He sought out Luc Montagnier’s assistance in late 1982. Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and their team at the Pasteur Institute had spent much of their time in the late 1970s and early 1980s studying the connection between retroviruses and certain forms of cancer. A retrovirus is distinct from other types of viruses based on its genetic material and its method of replication. A retrovirus’s genome is stored in a single strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Like other viruses, retroviruses can only reproduce in an infected host. Using an enzyme called reverse transcriptase, the retrovirus accomplishes this by creating deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from its own RNA. With the help of another enzyme, this DNA then bonds with the genetic material of the host cell.

Though the project departed somewhat from their usual area of expertise, Montagnier agreed to take it on and asked Barré-Sinoussi to lead the investigation. Provided with samples from a patient diagnosed with the illness, Barré-Sinoussi and the Pasteur Institute team isolated and identified the deadly retrovirus in early 1983.

The team announced its discovery in the May 1983 issue of Science, and Barré-Sinoussi traveled to the United States to present the team’s data. Molecular biologists at the Pasteur Institute started constructing the virus’s genome. As their findings and those of other researchers piled up, the medical community soon reached the conclusion that the virus, later renamed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is the cause of AIDS. Though Barré-Sinoussi had spent most of her career investigating retroviruses and cancer, she shifted her focus. HIV/AIDS was killing people by the tens of thousands and in time would go on to kill tens of millions more. She recognized the scope of the crisis and dedicated her professional life solely to HIV research.

Though Chermann, her long-time mentor, left the Pasteur Institute in 1987, Barré-Sinoussi has stayed on throughout the decades. In 1992, she was placed in charge of her own laboratory, the Institute’s Biology of Retroviruses Unit. Renamed the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit in 2005, Barré-Sinoussi’s lab continued to operate at the forefront of HIV research well into the 2010s.

Since 1983, a major aspect of Barré-Sinoussi’s work has been a commitment to sharing her skills and insights with other scientists as well as in countries where a lack of wealth and infrastructure make combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic especially difficult. A seminal trip to the Central African Republic in 1985 convinced her of the importance of cultivating relationships in this and other countries. Connecting with researchers, leaders, and average citizens would facilitate the exchange of ideas and expertise across continents. Though Barré-Sinoussi’s travels have taken her throughout the world, much of her time has been spent working in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, in particular.

In 2008, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of HIV. Also receiving a share of the award was Harald zur Hausen for proving that human papilloma viruses cause cervical cancer. The first French woman ever to receive such a Nobel Prize, Barré-Sinoussi downplayed the honor but expressed hope that it would help promote further HIV/AIDS research.

Responding to a 2009 statement by Pope Benedict XVI that condoms were not an effective method of HIV/AIDS prevention, Barré-Sinoussi cosigned an open letter to the pontiff outlining the scientific case for their efficacy.

The author of over 220 articles, Barré-Sinoussi also holds seventeen patents. She received the French Légion d’Honneur in 2006. A co-chair of the United Nations Commission on AIDS Prevention (UNAIDS), she was appointed president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) in 2012 and served in that post until 2014. She retired from full-time research in 2015 but remained affiliated with the Pasteur Institute as emeritus professor into the 2020s.

Impact

The identification of HIV by the Montagnier–Barré-Sinoussi team was the first crucial step in the fight against HIV/AIDS, setting in motion a number of subsequent advances that would lead to a better understanding of the disease, its prevention, and its treatment. Having identified the virus, doctors could now develop ways to test for it. This proved crucial in eliminating blood transfusions as a means of HIV transmission and ensuring the safety of blood banks. Transmission rates have declined thanks to other preventive measures, such as increased condom use and needle exchanges.

While no cure has been found, what was once a death sentence has now become in many cases a manageable illness. Antiretroviral therapies developed in the years since the Pasteur Institute’s discoveries are helping those with HIV to live out their natural lives. Nevertheless, as Barré-Sinoussi’s commitment demonstrates, the fight against HIV/AIDS is far from over. According to the United Nations, the global HIV/AIDS infection rate was 39.9 million as of 2023, and in certain countries, especially in Africa, it was much higher. Often, these nations lack the institutions necessary for sustained countermeasures.

As one of the major human health crises of modern times, the HIV/AIDS epidemic illuminated a host of societal shortcomings. Nevertheless, one sector did distinguish itself. In an abbreviated period of time and in an atmosphere of widespread global panic, the medical community isolated and identified the cause of HIV/AIDS and quickly developed strategies to beat it back. Barré-Sinoussi and the Pasteur Institute team’s achievement thus stands among the most important medical breakthroughs of the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise. "Françoise Barré-Sinoussi—Biographical." Nobelprize.org, www.nobelprize.org/nobel‗prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/barre-sinoussi-bio.html. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Bell, Sigall T., Courtney L. McMickens, and Kevin Selby. AIDS (Biographies of Disease). Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2011. Print.

"Françoise Barre-Sinoussi." International AIDS Society, 2024, www.iasociety.org/conferences/aids2024/programme/featured-speakers/francoise-barre-sinoussi. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

"Global HIV & AIDS Statistics — Fact Sheet." UN AIDS, 2024, www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Montagnier, Luc. Virus: The Co-Discoverer of HIV Tracks Its Rampage and Charts the Future. Trans. Stephen Sartarelli. New York: Norton, 2000. Print.

Senthilingam, Meera. "HIV Discoverer: 'To Develop a Cure Is Almost Impossible.'" CNN, 24 July 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/07/23/health/francoise-barre-sinoussi-hiv/index.html. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.