Research Areas:
Clinical Virology, HIV Pathogenesis, Prevention of HIV and Coronavirus Transmission, HIV and Coronavirus Vaccine Development

Prof. David Da-i Ho is a globally esteemed leader in HIV/AIDS research, recognized for his groundbreaking contributions that have shaped the field over the past three decades. He earned his BS in Biology and Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1974. He then completed his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1978 and received his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine and at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has served as the Scientific Director and CEO of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC), Irene Diamond Professor at Rockefeller University, and currently as the Clyde '56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University. He is also the Director of The Wu Family China Center for Health Initiatives at Columbia University.

Prof. Ho's lab is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in virology, immunology, and translational medicine. His work revealed the active and dynamic nature of HIV replication from the earliest stages of infection, overturning prior assumptions and focusing global research on early intervention. His most significant scientific achievement was leading the development and clinical validation of combination antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which transformed HIV infection from a fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition. He also demonstrated the efficacy of long-acting antiretroviral drugs as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in animal models, with translation to human clinical trials (e.g., cabotegravir in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline). His team has also engineered potent neutralizing antibodies against divergent HIV strains, advancing these into clinical development with global partners. This paradigm shift in treatment strategy is credited with dramatically reducing AIDS-related mortality worldwide.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Ho leveraged his prior experience as an adviser to governments in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei during the SARS epidemic (2002-2003) to assemble a multidisciplinary team of physicians, scientists, and engineers at Columbia University. This collaboration has resulted in the identification of one of the broadest and most potent panels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 to date, with several candidates currently in clinical development for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Alongside his ongoing HIV research, Prof. Ho’s lab continues to explore the pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, aiming to develop innovative solutions for testing, treatment, and prevention.

Prof. Ho has received numerous prestigious awards for his outstanding research contributions, including being named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1996 for his leadership in AIDS research, the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001, the Lewis and Jack Rudin New York Prize for Medicine and Health in 2003, the Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2011, the Asia Game Changer Award in 2021, the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences in 2022 and the Cotlove Award in 2024. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, the Academia Sinica, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering. He has been awarded at least 14 honorary doctorates from leading institutions, including Tsinghua University and the Macau University of Science & Technology.