Robert C. Gallo, one of the best-known biomedical researchers in the United States, is considered the co-discoverer, along with Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute, of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Gallo established that the virus causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (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 scientific 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...