Hiroaki Mitsuya

is a Japanese virologist famous for his role in discovery of the anti-HIV drug zidovudine (AZT) as well as other anti-AIDS drugs including didanosine (ddI) and zalcitabine (ddC).

Mitsuya was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki and received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Kumamoto University. He joined the American National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1982, working initially on Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 before switching his attention to HIV. His identification of AZT as an anti-HIV drug, as well as the anti-HIV properties of didanosine and zalcitabine, was made in 1985. He was appointed Professor of Hematology, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at Kumamoto University Graduate School of Medical And Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In December, 2006, he was awarded the first NIH World AIDS Day Award for his work in developing drugs for AIDS. Mitsuya has been chief of the NCI's Experimental Retrovirology Section since 1991.

Awards and honors 2006: NIH World AIDS Day Award 2007: Takamine Memorial Daiichi Sankyo Prize 2007: Medal of Purple ribbon 2007: Keio Medical Science Prize 2014: Yomiuri International Cooperation Award 2015: Asahi Prize 2015: Japan Academy Prize (academics) 2023: Order of the Sacred Treasure 2025: Person of Cultural Merit

References and Links

Page describing Dr. Mitsuya's research on NCI website Yarchoan R, Mitsuya H, Broder S. AIDS therapies. Scientific American 1988;259(4):110-9