Dr. David Ho

David Da-i Ho (何大一, pinyin: Hé Dàyī) (born November 3, 1952) is a Taiwanese American AIDS researcher famous for pioneering the use of protease inhibitors in treating HIV-infected patients with his team. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A Taiwanese American is an American of Taiwanese ancestry. ... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ... Proteases (proteinases, peptidases, or proteolytic enzymes) are enzymes that break peptide bonds between amino acids of proteins. ... Species Human immunodeficiency virus 1 Human immunodeficiency virus 2 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS, a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. ...

Early Life

Born in Taichung, Taiwan to Paul (an engineer and soldier) and Sonia Ho, David Ho immigrated at the age of twelve to the United States, to unite with his father, who had already been in the USA for nine years at the time. He grew up in Los Angeles and received his BS degree in Physics summa cum laude from the California Institute of Technology (1974) and his MD from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (1978). Subsequently, he did his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at UCLA School of Medicine (1978-1982) and Massachusetts General Hospital (1982-1985), respectively. He was a resident in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1981 when he came into contact with some of the first reported cases of what was later identified as AIDS. Taichung (Chinese: ; pinyin: Táizhōng; Wade-Giles: Tai-chung; POJ: Tâi-tiong) is a city located in west-central Taiwan with a population of just over one million people, making it the third largest city on the island, after Taipei and Kaohsiung. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D)  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... A Bachelor of Science (B.S., B.Sc. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Doctor of Medicine (M.D. or MD, from the Latin Medicinae Doctor meaning teacher of medicine,) is an academic degree for medical doctors. ... Founded in 1970, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) is one of the oldest and largest biomedical engineering and physician-scientist training programs in the United States and the longest-standing collaboration between Harvard and MIT. From the beginning, HST pioneered a new way of thinking... Doctors of internal medicine (internists) are medical specialists who focus on adult medicine and have had special study and training focusing on the prevention and treatment of adult diseases. ... Binomial name Ucla xenogrammus Holleman, 1993 The largemouth triplefin, Ucla xenogrammus, is a fish of the family Tripterygiidae and only member of the genus Ucla, found in the Pacific Ocean from Viet Nam, the Philippines, Palau and the Caroline Islands to Papua New Guinea, Australia (including Christmas Island), and the... Massachusetts General Hospital (often abbreviated to Mass General or just MGH) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and biomedical research facility in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a world-renowned hospital located in Los Angeles, California. ...

Making his residence in Chappaqua, New York, Ho is married to artist Susan Kuo, with whom he has three children: Kathryn, Jonathan, and Jaclyn. He is a member of the Committee of 100, a Chinese American leadership organization, in addition to several scientific groups. Interestingly, despite his high professional profile, his command of the English language, his role as director of a U.S. corporation, and his successful assimilation into U.S. culture, Ho still performs his mathematical calculations in Chinese. Chappaqua is a hamlet and census-designated place in northern Westchester County, New York. ... For the Chinese-American organisation, see Committee of 100 (United States). ... A Chinese American is an American who is of ethnic Chinese descent. ...

Research

Ho was one of the first scientists to propose that AIDS was caused by a virus although he had never been able to isolate HIV from an HIV+ person. Among an impressive list of seminal contributions to the field, he is perhaps most recognized for the elucidation of the dynamic nature of HIV replication in infected persons.^[1] This basic understanding led Dr. Ho and his coworkers to champion combination antiretroviral therapy, including the use of protease inhibitors,^[2] that has resulted in dramatic reductions in AIDS-associated mortality in developed countries since 1996. Dr. Ho continues to pursue therapeutic studies that attempt to eradicate HIV. In addition, his research team is now devoting considerable efforts to develop a vaccine to halt the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

Ho shifted his work from treating late in the illness to finding ways to fight the disease early on. Ho devised the method of treating HIV with "cocktails". He theorized that combining the powerful protease inhibitor drugs with other HIV medications would provide a more effective way to treat the disease.

David Ho was TIME magazine's 1996 Man of the Year. TIME later recalled the selection surprised both Ho and readers, with one reader calling Ho "Dr. David Who?"^[3] TIME acknowledged in 1996 that "Ho is not, to be sure, a household name. But some people make headlines while others make history."^[3] Ho was even briefly mentioned when Alexander Fleming was considered for Person of the Century in 1999, since Fleming could be portrayed as representative of other scientists including Ho,^[4] but the title ultimately went to Albert Einstein. Look up time in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Person of the Year is an annual issue of U.S. newsmagazine TIME that features a profile ostensibly on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year. ... Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. ... Albert Einstein( ) (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is widely considered to have been one of the greatest physicists of all time. ...

Dr. Ho has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy. He is currently the scientific director and chief executive officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Irene Diamond Professor at the Rockefeller University in New York. The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... The Academia Sinica (Chinese:中央研究院; pinyin: Zhōngyāng Yánjiùyuàn; Latin, Chinese Academy), headquartered in the Nangang district of Taipei, is the national academy for the Republic of China on Taiwan. ... The Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, is an American organization whose purpose is to provide national advice on issues relating to biomedical science, medicine, and health (National Academy of Sciences, n. ... A national academy is a body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates the activities of research in (nearly always) the sciences and (sometimes) other disciplines. ... Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center is a medical research institution dedicated to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. It is headed by prominent scientist Dr. David Ho, and located in New York City. ... Founders Hall Rockefeller University is a private university focusing primarily on graduate and postgraduate education research in the biomedical fields, located between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan island in New York City, New York. ... NY redirects here. ...

Quotes

• "This is a problem for the world and therefore we're going to solve it."

References

External links

• rockefeller.edu: Heads of Laboratories
• 1996 Man of the Year
• Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center
• David Ho Interview -- Academy of Achievement