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Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal is a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist who was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the functions of its gene, which helped prove that HIV is the cause of AIDS. Flossie grew up in China but moved to the United States to attend the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where she earned her bachelor’s and Ph.D. in molecular biology. Flossie continued her research at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) before moving to Maryland to work at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study retroviruses with Robert Gallo, a pioneer in the study of AIDS. After creating a genetic map of the HIV virus, which helped develop blood tests for HIV, Flossie returned to UCSD and continued her AIDS research.
