Career
Ho has been at the forefront of AIDS research for three decades. He published over 400 papers (cited June 2011), enabling the scientific community to understand the mechanism of HIV replication. He championed the combination anti-retroviral therapy which allowed the control of HIV replication in patients. AIDS mortality has declined six times in developed countries since 1996, and international efforts are under way to bring the treatment to patients in the developing world.
Ho shifted his work from treating late in the illness to finding ways to fight the disease early on. Ho helped devise the HAART or highly active anti-retroviral therapy, which prescribes a cocktail of drugs to treat AIDS, on the theory that it would be more effective to combine powerful protease inhibitors with other HIV medications.
Ho's research team is working on developing vaccines for AIDS. He heads a consortium of organization in China and the U.S. to address the crisis of HIV/AIDS in China. In a June 13, 2011 interview with Asian Scientist Magazine, he discusses his team's progress with Ibalizumab, the antibody his team is developing for HIV vaccination with support from the Gates Foundation.
Ho keeps good relations with the Taiwanese government and the top research institution of Taiwan, Academia Sinica. He has been playing important role in the state-sponsored research and development of biotechnology in Taiwan.
Ho is a member of the Committee of 100, a Chinese American leadership organization, in addition to several scientific groups.
Read more about this topic: David Ho (scientist)
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