research. After a fellow researcher, Mikulas Popovic, successfully cultured and isolated the virus, Hahn and Shaw cloned the virus's genome, becoming the first scientists to do so. They were able to determine that the isolated retrovirus was the cause of AIDS. They went on to discover that HIV originated from chimpanzees, gorillas, and sooty mangabey strains of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Their team used non-invasive research techniques in order to study endangered species of primates in the wild. Contrary to the prevailing scientific opinion, Hahn found that SIV does cause disease in its hosts and that chimpanzees represent a reservoir of HIV. She also discovered that SIV could be transmitted sexually and through breast milk among chimpanzees. She has also cloned HIV-2 and catalogued genetic variants of HIV-1 and their drug resistance. Hahn and Shaw had many papers published (including a cover article for Nature) and in 1985 they were both recruited by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Comprehensive Cancer Center to lead and conduct human retrovirus research. Both excelled in their work and Hahn went on to become a distinguished professor in the Departments of Microbiology and medicine as well as work as co-director at the Center for AIDS research at UAB. Hahn and her long-time research partner George Shaw married in 1988. After working at UAB, Hahn and Shaw moved to the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. There she has used non-invasive fecal sampling to investigate SIV and HIV in primate populations. Her research has also included the origins of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum; determining that P. falciparum was transmitted to humans from gorillas in a single event in West Africa. Details of research Hahn conducted her research from an evolutionary perspective when studying disease mechanisms and HIV/SIV gene function. Simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) are a type of retroviruses that are capable of infecting a myriad of non-human primate species located in Africa. Hanh made the startling discovery that certain SIVs had traversed between humans and certain nonhuman primate species a multitude of times to result in types 1 and 2 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The two viruses she identified were SIVcpz from chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and SIVsmm from sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys). The realization that the transfer of SIVs had generated HIV led Hahn to conclude that presence of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was due to the cross-species