We Need Your Help!
Do You Know This Scientist?
If you do, we welcome your input. Please share your funny stories, brief anecdotes, quotes, and photos of the scientist - as well as your own inspirational opinions. Personal accounts help bring a scientist alive and create an enduring historical picture. You can be a part of this exciting history by providing your personal account!
Please click here to learn more about how to contribute:
Participate as a Friend Scholar
Can You Write or Research?
Help us learn more about this great scientist. You can be a credited Support Scholar by contributing your knowledge about this scientist and important discovery. Entries can be as short as a single section and as easy as compiling quotes. Click here to learn more about becoming a Support Scholar:
Participate as a Support Scholar
Would you like to adopt a scientist?
Endeavor to research all the sections of a scientist. Click here to learn how to be an Expert Scholar.
Participate as an Expert Scholar
Have Historically Significant Photographs?
Participate with Photos
Click here for all the ways you can participate:
Participate to ScienceHeroes.com
Testimonials
Has this scientist’s science impacted your life?
Click here to tell your story or to read others’ life changing anecdotes:
Post Your Own Testimonial
Gervais Dionne (dob - ) Born in Year of Discovery: 1989 ![]() ![]() Discovers New AIDS Drug Dionne is a talented chemist. Following graduation, he worked for several years as a research scientist with Ayerst Laboratories. Then, when Ayerst relocated its operations to the United States, Dionne accepted a position as a research scientist group leader with a research company associated with the University of Quebec. During the two years he spent there, he developed a strong bond with two fellow researchers, Francesco Bellini and Bernard Belleau. The trio formed their own drug-development company and began work on the anti-AIDS drug 3TC. The drug was a major success, proving to be effective in fighting AIDS and having fewer side effects than the then current treatment, AZT. The introduction of 3TC was a significant advance in the fight against AIDS, and is credited with saving over 2 million lives.
Human immunodeficiency virus originated in West Africa, with the first confirmed case being recorded in 1959. The virus slowly spread across Africa and then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, exploded throughout other parts of the world. HIV is the underlying cause of AIDS, a disease that attacks the immune system, and is passed from person to person through contact with bodily fluids. As AIDS progresses, individuals become less able to ward off infections and get sick from things that a normal healthy immune system would easily fight off. Health officials initially thought the disease was limited to homosexual men living in large metropolitan areas. But, they quickly discovered that both hemophiliacs and heterosexual intravenous drug users were also being infected. A French physician, Luc Montagnier, initially discovered that the underlying cause of AIDS was a retrovirus, a virus capable of reprogramming the body with a defective genetic code. This was a major breakthrough, allowing other scientists to develop treatments, and AZT became the first drug approved to fight AIDS.
Introduction by Tim Anderson Table of Contents IntroductionLinks to More Information About the Scientist Key Insight Key Experiment or Research Key Contributors Quotes by the Scientist Quotes About the Scientist Anecdotes Fun Trivia About The Science The Science Behind the Discovery Personal Information Science Discovery Timeline Recommended Books About the Science Books by the Scientist Books About the Scientist Awards Major Academic Papers Curriculum Vitae Links to Science and Related Information on the Subject Sources
Links to More About the Scientist & the Science BNET article about Dionne, including profile: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_Dec_2/ai_94761539/ An article by Dionne about the importance of pharmaceutical research: The New York Times article about approval of Dionne's new AIDS drug: Thallion Pharma profile of Dionne: http://www.thallion.com/en/thallion/board-directors.php Sliders & Images here Image Flow Here
Key Contributors
The Science Behind the Discovery
Curriculum VitaeLinks to Information on the Science Sources/References
|