G
233•
GGallo, Robert C.ALLO, ROBERTC. (1937- )
American virologistRobert C. Gallo, one of the best-known biomedical
researchers in the United States, is considered the co-discov-
erer, along with Luc Montagnierat the Pasteur Institute, of the
Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV). Gallo established that
the virus causes acquired immunodeficiencysyndrome (AIDS),
something that Montagnier had not been able to do, and he
developed the blood test for HIV, which remains a central tool
in efforts to control the disease. Gallo also discovered the
human T-cell leukemia virus(HTLV) and the human T-cell
growth factor interleukin–2.
Gallo’s initial work on the isolation and identification of
the AIDS virus has been the subject of a number of allegations,
resulting in a lengthy investigation and official charges of sci-
entific misconduct which were overturned on appeal. Although
he has now been exonerated, the ferocity of the controversy has
tended to obscure the importance of his contributions both to
AIDS research and biomedical research in general. As
Malcolm Gladwell observed in 1990 in the Washington Post:
“Gallo is easily one of the country’s most famous scientists,
frequently mentioned as a Nobel Prize contender, and a man
whose research publications were cited by other researchers
publishing their own work during the last decade more often
than those of any other scientist in the world.”
Gallo was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on March
23, 1937, to Francis Anton and Louise Mary (Ciancuilli)
Gallo. He grew up in the house that his Italian grandparents
bought after they came to the United States. His father worked
long hours at the welding company which he owned. The
dominant memory of Gallo’s youth was of the illness and
death of his only sibling, Judy, from childhood leukemia. The
disease brought Gallo into contact with the nonfamily member
who most influenced his life, Dr. Marcus Cox, the pathologist
who diagnosed her disease in 1948. During his senior year in
high school, an injury kept Gallo off the high school basket-
ball team and forced him to think about his future. He beganto spend time with Cox, visiting him at the hospital, even
assisting in postmortem examinations. When Gallo entered
college, he knew he wanted a career in biomedical research.
Gallo attended Providence College, where he majored
in biology, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1959. He
continued at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where
he got an introduction to medical research. In 1961, he worked
as a summer research fellow in Alan Erslev’s laboratory at
Jefferson. His work studying the pathology of oxygen depri-
vation in coal miners led to his first scientific publication in
1962, while he was still a medical student.
In 1961, Gallo married Mary Jane Hayes, whom he met
while in Providence College. Together they had two children.
Gallo graduated from medical school in 1963; on the advice of
Erslev, he went to the University of Chicago because it had a
reputation as a major center for blood-cell biology, Gallo’s
research interest. From 1963 to 1965, he did research on the
biosynthesis of hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in
the blood.
In 1965, Gallo was appointed to the position of clinical
associate at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in
Bethesda, Maryland. He spent much of his first year at NIH
caring for cancer patients. Despite the challenges, he observed
some early successes at treating cancer patients with
chemotherapy. Children were being cured of the very form of
childhood leukemia that killed his sister almost twenty years
before. In 1966, Gallo was appointed to his first full-time
research position, as an associate of Seymour Perry, who was
head of the medicine department. Perry was studying how
white blood cells grow in various forms of leukemia. In his
laboratory, Gallo studied the enzymesinvolved in the synthe-
sis of the components of DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid), the car-
rier of genetic information.
The expansion of the NIH and the passage of the
National Cancer Act in 1971 led to the creation of the
Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology at the National Cancer
Institute (NCI), a part of the NIH. Gallo was appointed head
of the new laboratory. He had become intrigued with the pos-womi_G 5/6/03 3:18 PM Page 233