Michael Stuart Gottlieb (born 1947) is an American physician and immunologist known for his 1981 identification of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as a new disease, and for his HIV/AIDS research, HIV/AIDS activism, and philanthropic efforts associated with HIV/AIDS treatment.
The work of Gottlieb and others suggested that these patients had an acquired immunodeficiency, characterized by depressed T-lymphocyte numbers and function, allowing for potentially fatal opportunistic infections.
Initially, the researchers termed the disease Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID);[6] in 1982 this syndrome became known as AIDS, a consequence of infection by Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Gottlieb was the principal investigator on a $10.3 million National Institutes of Health contract for an AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) awarded to UCLA to test potential therapies for HIV.
Gottlieb, Elizabeth Taylor, and Mathilde Krim were founding chairs of the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
In 1989 Gottlieb and two other physicians were sent letters of reprimand by the Medical Board of California for "allegedly over-prescribing controlled substances" to actress Elizabeth Taylor.