Beatrice Hahn

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. The simian versions of the virus (known as SIVcpz in chimpanzees, and SIVgor in gorillas) became the infection named HIV in humans. As a child, she was interested in medicine by her father's work as a primary care physician. He was one of the first doctors in Bavaria to use an X-ray machine, and allowed Beatrice to use some of his medical equipment as she grew up. Hahn was fascinated by studying urine slides under the microscope, and taking blood samples. Her ambition to enter medicine dates from this period.

In addition to her work in universities and as a researcher, Hahn is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Microbiology, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's HIV/AIDS Program and has served on numerous NIH Counsel groups.

Research Hahn met Robert Gallo when she was a student at the Technical University of Munich. He was a virologist and a researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Most of his research was focused on leukemia, the disease that had taken his sister's life at an early age. One of the main areas of interest for Gallo was tumor-causing retroviruses.

Hahn and Shaw had many papers published (including a cover article for Nature) and in 1985 they were both recruited by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Comprehensive Cancer Center to lead and conduct human retrovirus research. There she has used non-invasive fecal sampling to investigate SIV and HIV in primate populations. Her research has also included the origins of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum; determining that P. falciparum was transmitted to humans from gorillas in a single event in West Africa.

Hanh made the startling discovery that certain SIVs had traversed between humans and certain nonhuman primate species a multitude of times to result in types 1 and 2 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The two viruses she identified were SIVcpz from chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and SIVsmm from sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys). Her studies showed that the chimpanzees that had viruses similar to HIV-1 and to one another belonged to the same group; P.t. troglodytes. On the other hand, Noah, the chimpanzee with the virus that was extremely distant, was a P.t. schweinfurthii. 2001, Recipient, The Max Cooper Award for Research Excellence 2002, one of "The 50 Most Important Women in Science", Discover Magazine 2010, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology 2012, Fellow, National Academy of Sciences 2014, Winford P. Larson Lectureship, University of Minnesota 2016, Elected, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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