Hiroaki Mitsuya (born 1950) is a Japanese virologist famous for his discovery of the anti-HIV drug AZT. Mitsuya obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. at Kumamoto University in Japan. He joined the American National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1982, working initially on human T cell leukemia virus type 1, before switching his attention to HIV. His identification of AZT as an anti-HIV drug, as well as the anti-HIV properties of ddI and ddC, was made in 1985. Mitsuya became chief of the NCI's Experimental Retrovirology Section since 1991.

1950 births | Living people | Japanese scientists | Virologists