Peter H. Duesberg
Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Born: December 2, 1936
Parents: Mother: Hilde Saettele, M.D.,
              Father: Richard Duesberg, Prof. of Internal Medicine

Education:
University of Würzburg,
Würzburg, Germany Vordiplom (Chemistry) 1956-1958
University of Basel
Basel, Switzerland 1958-1959
University of Munich
Munich, Germany Diplom (Chemistry) - 1961    1959-1961
University of Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany Ph.D. (Chemistry) - 1963    1961-1963

Research & Professional Experience:
Max-Planck Institute for Virus Research, Tübingen, Germany Postdoctoral Fellow 1963
Dept. of Molecular Biology
and Virus Laboratory;
University of California at Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Research Virologist 1964
   Assistant Professor in Residence 1968
   Assistant Professor 1970
   Associate Professor 1971
Since 1989: Dept. of Molecular & Cell Biology     Professor    1973 to present

Honors:

1969, Merck Award
1971, California Scientist of the Year Award
1981, First Annual American Medical Center Oncology Award
1986, Outstanding Investigator Award, National Institutes of Health
1986, elected to National Academy of Sciences
1986-87, Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
1988, Wissenschaftspreis, Hannover, Germany
1988, Lichtfield Lecturer, Oxford, England
1990, C. J. Watson Lecturer, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN
1992, Fisher Distinguished Professor, University of North Texas, Denton, TX
1992, Shaffer Alumni Lecturer, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
1992, Constance Ledward Rollins Lecture, University of New Hampshire,
   Durham NH, 15. Dec.
1996, Distinguished Speaker, Department of Biology, Univ. Louisville, KY,
  Oct. 17, "AIDS: virus- or drug induced?"; Oct. 18, "The role of aneuploidy in cancer".
1997, January-July: Guest professor of the University of Heidelberg at the Medical School in
  Mannheim (III Med. Klinik, director Prof. R. Hehlmann)
1998, August-December: Guest professor of the University of Heidelberg at the Medical School   in Mannheim (III Med. Klinik, director Prof. R. Hehlmann)
2000, May 6-7 (Pretoria) and July 3-4 (Johannesburg): Member of the International Panel of   Scientists invited by President Thabo Mbeki and the South African Government to discuss the   AIDS crisis.
2000, July-December: Guest professor of the University of Heidelberg at the Medical School in
  Mannheim (III Med. Klinik, director Prof. R. Hehlmann)

Biographic sketch of Prof. Peter H. Duesberg - UC Berkeley

Peter H. Duesberg, PhD, is a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
     In 1968-1970 he demonstrated that influenza virus has a segmented genome. This would explain its unique ability to form recombinants by reassortment of subgenomic segments. He isolated the first cancer gene through his work on retroviruses in 1970, and mapped the genetic structure of these viruses. This, and his subsequent work in the same field, resulted in his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1986. He was also the recipient of a seven-year Outstanding Investigator Grant from the National Institutes of Health from 1985-1992.
     On the basis of his experience with retroviruses, Duesberg has challenged the virus-AIDS hypothesis in the pages of Cancer Research, The Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science, Nature, Genetica, Journal of AIDS, AIDS Forschung, Biomed. & Pharmacother., New Engl. J. Med., Chemical and Engineering News, Naturwissenschaften, Research in Immunology , Pharmacology & Therapeutics and the British Medical Journal. He has instead proposed the hypothesis that the various AIDS diseases are brought on by the long-term consumption of recreational drugs and anti-HIV drugs, such as the DNA chain terminator AZT, which is prescribed to prevent or treat AIDS.
     Based on 30 years of studies on viral cancer, and over 15 years on cellular genes related to viral cancer- or oncogenes, now termed cellular oncogenes, the conclusion was reached that viral carcinogenesis is statistically negligible, and that the evidence for cellular oncogenes is inconclusive. Therefore, the hypothesis was advanced that aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes, rather than cellular oncogenes, is the cause of cancer. The hypothesis promises improvements in cancer prevention by eliminating substances that cause aneuploidy from food and drugs.