Don Francis
Encyclopedia
Donald Pinkston Francis is an American epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola
outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and researched on HIV
and AIDS
. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. According to him, the White House (then under the administration of George H.W. Bush) wanted him fired, but in order to evade controversy he quietly "retired". He currently lives in San Francisco, California
.
and grew up in Marin County. His main interest was skiing
, and his mother, father and grandfather were physicians. Francis, however, was a poor student as a child, suffering from dyslexia. He has said that he gravitated towards science because he had such difficulty with subjects where fluid reading ability was needed.
Francis completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley
. He was a member of the California chapter at Delta Upsilon
, class of 1966. He received his M.D. from Northwestern University
and his Doctor of Science in Virology from Harvard. He did his internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles and his fellowship in infectious diseases at Harvard. Before beginning his work on AIDS
, Francis was involved in epidemic control around the world. He was instrumental in eradicating smallpox
from Sudan
, India
and Bangladesh
. He was also on the front line of the cholera
epidemic in Nigeria
in the early 1970s, the smallpox epidemic in Yugoslavia
in 1972 http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/SS/bkgnd_paper.html, and the Ebola
epidemic in Sudan in 1976. Francis also did some of the early developmental work on the hepatitis B vaccine, both in the United States and in the People's Republic of China.
AIDS Laboratory Activities, he worked closely with the Institut Pasteur
which isolated HIV
.
At the time of his retirement from the CDC, he was the centers' AIDS Advisor to the State of California and Special Consultant to Mayor Art Agnos in San Francisco. In the latter capacity he served as the Chair of the Mayor's HIV Task Force.
In 1993, Francis joined Genentech, Inc., of South San Francisco to try to develop a vaccine
for HIV. In 1995, Francis and fellow retrovirologist Dr. Robert Nowinski spun off Genentech's HIV vaccine unit, after the company had disappointing results, and founded VaxGen
, based in Brisbane, California, to continue working on vaccines. After the vaccine failed in clinical trials, he left VaxGen in 2004 to co-found Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases http://www.gsid.org/, where he serves as Executive Director and a principal investigator.
, based on the 1987 book of the same name by San Francisco Chronicle
journalist Randy Shilts
. A central figure in the movie is Francis, played by (Matthew Modine
). His dramatic antagonist is Dr. Robert Gallo
(Alan Alda
), the discoverer of HTLV
(the human T-cell leukemia virus), and co-discoverer of HIV, who cuts off assistance when he hears that Francis has shared some experimental materials with French researchers at the Pasteur Institute
.
Ebola
Ebola virus disease is the name for the human disease which may be caused by any of the four known ebolaviruses. These four viruses are: Bundibugyo virus , Ebola virus , Sudan virus , and Taï Forest virus...
outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and researched on HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
and AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. According to him, the White House (then under the administration of George H.W. Bush) wanted him fired, but in order to evade controversy he quietly "retired". He currently lives in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
.
Early life
He was born October 24, 1942 in the Bay Area of CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and grew up in Marin County. His main interest was skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
, and his mother, father and grandfather were physicians. Francis, however, was a poor student as a child, suffering from dyslexia. He has said that he gravitated towards science because he had such difficulty with subjects where fluid reading ability was needed.
Francis completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. He was a member of the California chapter at Delta Upsilon
Delta Upsilon
Delta Upsilon is the sixth oldest international, all-male, college Greek-letter organization, and is the oldest non-secret fraternity in North America...
, class of 1966. He received his M.D. from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
and his Doctor of Science in Virology from Harvard. He did his internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles and his fellowship in infectious diseases at Harvard. Before beginning his work on AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, Francis was involved in epidemic control around the world. He was instrumental in eradicating smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
from Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. He was also on the front line of the cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
in the early 1970s, the smallpox epidemic in Yugoslavia
1972 outbreak of smallpox in Yugoslavia
The 1972 outbreak of smallpox in Yugoslavia was the last major outbreak of smallpox in Europe. It was centred in Kosovo and Belgrade, Serbia . A Muslim pilgrim had contracted the smallpox virus in the Middle East. Upon returning to his home in Kosovo, he started the epidemic in which 175 people...
in 1972 http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/SS/bkgnd_paper.html, and the Ebola
Ebola
Ebola virus disease is the name for the human disease which may be caused by any of the four known ebolaviruses. These four viruses are: Bundibugyo virus , Ebola virus , Sudan virus , and Taï Forest virus...
epidemic in Sudan in 1976. Francis also did some of the early developmental work on the hepatitis B vaccine, both in the United States and in the People's Republic of China.
Later Work
Francis began his work on AIDS in 1981. He was one of the first scientists to suggest that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent. As director of CDC'sCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
AIDS Laboratory Activities, he worked closely with the Institut Pasteur
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
which isolated HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
.
At the time of his retirement from the CDC, he was the centers' AIDS Advisor to the State of California and Special Consultant to Mayor Art Agnos in San Francisco. In the latter capacity he served as the Chair of the Mayor's HIV Task Force.
In 1993, Francis joined Genentech, Inc., of South San Francisco to try to develop a vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
for HIV. In 1995, Francis and fellow retrovirologist Dr. Robert Nowinski spun off Genentech's HIV vaccine unit, after the company had disappointing results, and founded VaxGen
VaxGen
VaxGen is a biopharmaceutical company based in the San Francisco Bay Area.As of July 28, 2010, VaxGen Inc. was acquired by diaDexus, Inc., in a reverse merger transaction. VaxGen, Inc. does not have significant operations. The company seeks to enter into a strategic transaction or series of...
, based in Brisbane, California, to continue working on vaccines. After the vaccine failed in clinical trials, he left VaxGen in 2004 to co-found Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases http://www.gsid.org/, where he serves as Executive Director and a principal investigator.
And The Band Played On
In 1993, HBO produced an Emmy-winning movie of the AIDS crisis called And The Band Played OnAnd the Band Played On
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic is a nonfiction book written by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts, published in 1987...
, based on the 1987 book of the same name by San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
journalist Randy Shilts
Randy Shilts
Randy Shilts was a pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a freelance reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations....
. A central figure in the movie is Francis, played by (Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
). His dramatic antagonist is Dr. Robert Gallo
Robert Gallo
Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus , the infectious agent responsible for the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome , and he has been a major contributor to subsequent HIV research.Gallo is the...
(Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
), the discoverer of HTLV
Human T-lymphotropic virus
Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 , also called the Adult T-cell lymphoma virus type 1, a virus that has been seriously implicated in several kinds of diseases including HTLV-I-associated myelopathy, Strongyloides stercoralis hyper-infection, and a virus cancer link for leukemia...
(the human T-cell leukemia virus), and co-discoverer of HIV, who cuts off assistance when he hears that Francis has shared some experimental materials with French researchers at the Pasteur Institute
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
.
Further reading
- Don Francis and the Ebola Virus
- Film Annotations for And the Band Played On
- Dr. Donald P. Francis Talks to Teachers About the Ebola Outbreak
- Movers & Shakers Interview (3 June 2003) - Dr. Donald Francis, President & Co-Founder, VaxGen Inc.
- The VaxGen Experiment, London Sunday Times, 3 October 1999
- Vaccine has no impact; AIDSVAX's failure a blow to treatment
- VaxGen Announces Changes to Management and Board
- [Website] Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases