David Ho

When David Ho was three years old his father traveled to America in search of a better life for his family. He was away for nine years, until he was finally able to send for his family. Knowing no English, David concentrated on his schoolwork and success. He went to M.I.T. for one year and earned his B.S. in physics from Caltech, but was soon attracted to molecular biology and the cutting-edge technology of gene splicing. He went on to the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. The AIDS epidemic beckoned as a challenge and he began studying the virus at Massachusetts General Hospital and UCLA School of Medicine. Realizing that AIDS was an infectious disease and that HIV multiplies many times right from the start, Ho and his team administered a combination of protease-inhibitor and antiviral drug “cocktails” to early-stage AIDS patients with dramatic results. For his inroads into the vicious disease, Ho was named Time's 1996 Man of the Year. Ho continues his work at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center.