William Haseltine

William Haseltine is a biologist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and professor. He made groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS and the human genome. Haseltine has been at the vanguard of discoveries in molecular biology and the commercialization of bio­technologies for more than three decades.

Time Magazine listed Dr. Haseltine as one of the world's 25 most influential business people in 2001 and one of the 100 most influential leaders in biotechnology by Scientific American in 2015.

William Haseltine is the President of the Haseltine Foundation for Science and the Arts and is the Founder, Chairman, and President of ACCESS Health International, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving access to high quality health worldwide. The foundation is active in the United States, India, China, Singapore, Sweden and the Philippines.

He founded several biotechnology companies including Cambridge Biosciences, The Virus Research Institute, ProScript, LeokoSite, Dendreon, Diversa, X-VAX, and Demetrix. Dr. Haseltine founded HumanGenome Sciences, a company that pioneered the application of genomics to drug discovery and with the company’s development coined the term Regenerative Medicine in 1999.

Two research departments on cancer and HIV/AIDS were founded by Professor Haseltine while he was teaching at Harvard Medical School. He was a part of a team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that led the race to discover the genomic sequence of HIV. Haseltine devoted his efforts to finding ways to diagnose, treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. He developed many of the tools that have led to successful treatment ofAIDS.

William Haseltine was an advisor to the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. He has advised the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, India, and Singapore on biotechnology and economic development. From 1986-1990 he served as an informal advisor to the French government on HIV/AIDS.

In an article titled "20 years ago in Discover: MisunderstandingAIDS", Discover Magazine credited Haseltine as the only one of 20 scientists interviewed in the mid-1980s that correctly understood that transmission of HIV/AIDS.

The American Foundation of AIDS Research is one of the most successful groups in its field due to the help provided by Dr. Haseltine. William became the first chairman of the scientific advisory board ofAMFAR. The board made grants available for those wishing to begin research on HIV/AIDS and to work on the de-stigmatization ofHIV/AIDS.

Haseltine holds over 50 patents, which are complementary to the over 250scientific articles he has written. William wrote books on healthcare systems and biotechnology of many countries: Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story, Aging with Dignity: Innovation and Challenge in Sweden — the Voice ofCare Professionals, Voices in Dementia Care and Every Second Counts: Saving Two Million Lives, India’s Emergency Response System. His book titled World Class is on the achievements and importance of NYU Langone Medical Center.

Education

- BA Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, 1966

- PhD Biophysics, Harvard University, 1973

- Postdoctoral Research: Massachusetts Institute of Technology1973-1976