David Baltimore, Nobel laureate in Medicine, dies

American biologist David Baltimore, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1975, has died on Saturday at the age of 87. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Baltimore was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research on retroviruses, including HIV, and the discovery of a viral enzyme that explained the replication of genetic information in cells. This discovery contributed to the development of gene therapies.

His career was marked by a scientific fraud case in 1986, where a colleague was accused of falsifying data. Baltimore resigned from the presidency of Rockefeller University in 1991 but was later cleared of all suspicion in 1996.

Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ-AFP