David Da-i Ho (; born November 3, 1952) is a Taiwanese-American AIDS researcher, physician, and virologist who has made a number of scientific contributions to the understanding and treatment of HIV infection. He is the founding scientific director of the

Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, often abbreviated as ADARC, is a medical research institution dedicated to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. It is headed by scientist Dr. David Ho, who was the 1996 Time magazine Person of the Year, and is located i ...

and the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. David Ho was born in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Ta ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, to Paul (), an engineer, and Sonia Ho (née Jiang) (). David Ho attended Taichung Municipal Guang-Fu Elementary School until sixth grade before immigrating to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

with his mother and younger brother to unite with his father, who had already been in the US since 1957. He grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

and graduated from John Marshall High School. He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

with highest honors from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(1974) and MD from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (1978). Subsequently, he did his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at UCLA School of Medicine (1978–1982) and

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United State ...

(1982–1985), respectively. He was a resident in internal medicine at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2, ...

in Los Angeles in 1981 when he came into contact with some of the first reported cases of what was later identified as AIDS.

Career

Ho has been engaged in HIV/AIDS research since the beginning of the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of i ...

, initially focusing on clinical

virology Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, th ...

and select topics in HIV pathogenesis. In the mid 1990s, his research team conducted a series of elegant human studies to elucidate the dynamics of HIV replication in vivo. This knowledge, in turn, formed the foundation for their pioneering effort to treat HIV "early and hard" and in demonstrating for the first time the durable control of HIV replication in patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy. This was the turning point in the epidemic that an automatic death sentence was transformed into a manageable disease. For the past decade and a half, Ho has shifted his research focus to developing strategies to prevent HIV transmission. A protective vaccine against HIV remains elusive despite concerted research efforts. However, Ho has been leading non-vaccine approaches to block HIV transmission that have shown considerable promise. His group was the first to demonstrate protective efficacy of a long-acting antiretroviral drug as pre-exposure prophylaxis in

rhesus macaques The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies that are split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally b ...

. In fact, one such agent, cabotegravir, has recently completed Phase-3 efficacy trials in high-risk populations, in collaboration with

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British Multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of Gl ...

. In parallel, Ho's group has also engineered exquisitely potent antibodies that neutralize divergent strains of HIV. The most promising neutralizing agent is a bispecific monoclonal antibody that entered a first-in-human clinical trial in 2019 with the support of the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it w ...

. The Ho Lab is funded by two NIH grants to pursue the use of engineered antibodies to purge the viral latent reservoir as a part of the international HIV cure effort. Currently, the Ho lab is funded by the Jack Ma Foundation to work on coronavirus projects. Ho has published more than 500 research papers as of February 2020. He championed the combination anti-retroviral therapy which had earlier been developed by scientists at NIAID and Merck. This approach allowed the control of HIV replication in patients Ho is a member of the Committee of 100, a Chinese American leadership organization, in addition to several scientific groups. Ho is leading a team, funded by Jack Ma, to look for a vaccine for the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

virus and believes that other treatments that may become effective against COVID-19 should be examined.

Honors and titles

Ho has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific accomplishments. He is the recipient of 14 honorary doctorates, including those from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

and

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...

. On January 8, 2001, he was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

. Ho was the chosen commencement speaker at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, MIT, and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in 2000. Ho has been elected as a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

and an Academician of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

(Taiwan). He is also a member of the

Chinese Academy of Engineering The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE, ) is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for engineering. It was established in 1994 and is an institution of the State Council of China. The CAE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...

and the U.S.

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

. He was inducted into the

California Hall of Fame The California Hall of Fame honors individuals and families who embody California's innovative spirit and have made their mark on history. The hall and its exhibits are housed in The California Museum in Sacramento. The hall of fame was conceived ...

. Ho was recognized by the Kingdom of Thailand with the

Prince Mahidol Award The Prince Mahidol Award ( th, รางวัลสมเด็จเจ้าฟ้ามหิดล) is an annual award for outstanding achievements in medicine and public health worldwide. The award is given by the Prince Mahidol Award Found ...

in Medicine, and the Distinguished Alumni Award by Caltech in 2015. Other accolades include the

Ernst Jung Prize The Ernst Jung Prize is a prize awarded annually for excellence in biomedical sciences. The Ernst Jung Foundation, funded by Hamburg merchant Ernst Jung in 1967, has awarded the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, now €300,000, since 1976, and the lif ...

in Medicine, Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science & Technology, the Squibb Award, and the Hoechst Marion Roussel Award. Ho is an honorary professor at

Peking Union Medical College Peking Union Medical College (), founded in 1906, is a selective public medical college based in Dongcheng, Beijing, China. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Double First Class University Plan university. The school is tied to the Peking Un ...

, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences,

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Repub ...

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public university, public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest Higher education in Hong Kong, tertia ...

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...

, and

Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is ...

in China. He was a member of the Board of Overseers of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and the Board of Trustees of the

. He is a former board member of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

Corporation. Ho was ''Time'' magazine's 1996

Man of the Year __NOTOC__ Person of the Year or Man of the Year is an award given to an individual by any type of organization. Most often, it is given by a newspaper or other news outlet to annually recognize a public person. Such awards have typically been awa ...

. ''Time'' later recalled the selection surprised both Ho and readersTime, ''Person of the Year: 75th Anniversary Celebration'', Special Collector's Edition, Time Books, 2002, p. 108. The magazine acknowledged in 1996 that "Ho is not, to be sure, a household name. But some people make headlines while others make history." As of 2020, Ho is the last person to be selected as Person of the Year in a U.S. presidential election year without winning that year's U.S. presidential election. In 1998, he received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

. Ho was even briefly mentioned when Alexander Fleming was considered for Person of the Century in 1999, since Fleming could be portrayed as representative of other disease-fighting scientists including Ho, but the title ultimately went to

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

. Ho has been elected as a member of the

(

), and the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

of the

National Academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the hum ...

. Ho was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and a board member of the MIT Corporation. He is currently a member of the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology. On December 6, 2006,

California governor The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady

Maria Shriver Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955) is an American journalist, author, a member of the Kennedy family, former First Lady of California, and the founder of the nonprofit organization The Women's Alzheimer's Movement. She was married to ...

inducted Ho into the

located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts. Ho was awarded Distinguished Alumni Award at California Institute of Technology in 2015. Ho received the Portrait of a Nation Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Personal life

Ho has three older children: Kathryn, Jonathan, and Jaclyn. He lives with his partner, Tera Wong, and their child, Jerren Ho. His family's ancestral home is Xinyu,

Jiangxi Province Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hi ...

Sources

The White House - ''President Clinton Awards the Presidential Citizens Medals Monday, January 8, 2001''

References

External links