Beatrice Hahn
American biologist / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Beatrice H. Hahn (born February 13, 1955) is an American virologist and biomedical researcher best known for work which established that HIV, the virus causing AIDS, began as a virus passed from apes to humans.[1][2][3] She is a professor of Medicine and Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.[4][5] In November 2002, Discover magazine listed Hahn as one of the 50 most important women scientists.[6]
Beatrice Hahn | |
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Born | (1955-02-13)February 13, 1955 |
Alma mater | Technical University Munich |
Known for | human immunodeficiency virus |
Spouse | George Shaw |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | National Cancer Institute, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Pennsylvania |
Hahn discovered that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) originated in other primates and spilled over to humans.[4] Hahn and her research group established that wild-living chimpanzees in southern Cameroon were a natural reservoir of the closely related simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs). The team developed non-invasive techniques for gathering genetic data. By making comparisons between the genes of HIV-1 and SIVs, they found that SIVs had originated in apes, and had passed to humans through multiple connections.[3][1] The simian versions of the virus (known as SIVcpz in chimpanzees, and SIVgor in gorillas) became the infection named HIV in humans.[7]
Hahn later determined that the malaria parasite also traversed from other primates to humans, in a single event.[4]