Irving S. Sigal

Irving Stanley Sigal (1953-1988) was an American molecular biologist and biochemist at Merck Research Laboratories, where he was a leader in early research on the HIV protease enzyme, work that helped open the path to protease-inhibitor antiretroviral drugs. He was among the authors of the landmark 1989 Nature paper describing the three-dimensional structure of HIV-1 protease. On 21 December 1988, at age 35, he was killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was Jewish and is buried at the Judea Reform Congregation Cemetery in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.