Doctor David D. Ho is a Taiwanese-American physician and researcher whose work significantly impacted our understanding of HIV/AIDS and how to treat it. Born in Taiwan in 1952, Dr. Ho immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a child. He grew up in Los Angeles and after graduating from high school, enrolled in the California Institute of Technology. He graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology & Physics and attended Harvard Medical School where he earned his MD in 1978. It was during his internal medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that Dr. Ho first encountered a patient exhibiting symptoms for a mysterious illness that would later be known as HIV. In a 2011 interview with Asian Scientist magazine, when asked how he became interested in researching HIV & AIDS, Dr. Ho said “I happened to be in the right place at the right time...I encountered a number of patients who presented with opportunistic infections suggesting that their immune system was impaired. It was a mystifying syndrome to doctors and scientists alike.”
Towards the end of the 1980s and as more individuals were diagnosed with HIV, Dr. Ho became the founding Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC). The center grew out of the partnership between the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Department of Health of the City of New York, the Public Health Research Institute and New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Ho and his team of researchers studied HIV replication in vivo and eventually proved the management of HIV replication through the use of antiretroviral therapy. This was a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV/AIDS as patients diagnosed with HIV had a treatment option that allowed them to live their life without being afraid of the virus. Since this breakthrough, Dr. Ho and his lab continues their research and searches for ways to prevent the transmission of HIV, while also researching potential vaccines for HIV.
Dr. David D. Ho has received many honors and awards in recognition for his contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS. For his discovery of antiretroviral therapy, he was named Time's Person of the Year in 1996. In 2001, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by then President Bill Clinton. He was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2006. On December 1, 2020, World AIDS Day, Dr. Ho received the National Leadership Recognition Award from the National AIDS Memorial. Currently, he serves as the Clyde ‘56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and he continues his research while serving as the Director for the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center.
Dr. Ho has published countless articles on his research over the course of his career. If you’re interested in learning more about his work, explore the Himmelfarb catalogue for articles such as ‘Time to Hit HIV, Early and Hard’ or ‘Engineering multi-specific antibodies against HIV-1’ and much more. Check out his conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci during the 2020 Worlds AIDS Day National Conversation and his 2016 interview with TIME magazine.
References:
“Becoming American: The Chinese Experience . David Ho Bio | PBS.” PBS, www.pbs.org/becomingamerican/ap_pjourneys_bio3.html. Accessed 21 May 2021.
“David Ho Receives National Leadership Award from National AIDS Memorial.” Columbia University Irving Medical Center, www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/david-ho-receives-national-leadership-award-national-aids-memorial. Accessed 21 May 2021.
“Faculty - David Ho.” Columbia University Department of Microbiology & Immunology, microbiology.columbia.edu/faculty-david-ho. Accessed 21 May 2021.
Mo, Steven. “AIDS Research Pioneer David Ho Talks To Asian Scientist Magazine.” Asian Scientist Magazine, 11 Sept. 2014, www.asianscientist.com/2011/06/features/aids-research-pioneer-david-ho-da-i.
“Our Legacy.” Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC), www.adarc.cuimc.columbia.edu/about-us/our-legacy. Accessed 20 May 2021.
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