Mirko Beljanski

Mirko Beljanski (27 March 1923 – 27 October 1998) was a French-Serbian molecular biologist, notable in the latter part of his career for devising and promoting a number of ineffective cancer treatments, and for treating French president François Mitterrand with them.
Beljanski was found guilty of medical malpractice in 1994. Both he and Mitterrand subsequently died of cancer.
Career.
Beljanski was born in 1923 in Yugoslavia. After WWII, he came to France to study, and lived there for the rest of his life. He was married to Monique Lucas, daughter of and granddaughter of . He received a PhD in 1948 from the University of Paris. In 1948, he entered the CNRS and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris as a researcher in molecular biology. 
In 1971, Beljanski discovered reverse transcriptase in bacteria. This was part of a larger research on DNA and RNA that led him to oppose the central dogma of molecular biology promoted by Jacques Monod, head of the Pasteur Institute. After he pursued his work against the advice of the Institute, Beljanski was made to leave in 1978, but still continued to publish scientific papers. He also obtained patents. He was at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Châtenay-Malabry until his retirement in 1988.
Beljanski believed he had found antivirals effective against cancer and AIDS. A product made of "flavopereirin", extracted from the Brazilian Pao pereira tree and called PB100 was claimed to be superior to AZT, which Beljanski called "real poison". Another molecule was rauvolfia vomitoria's alstonine.
There was never any evidence that any of the products Beljanski promoted were effective medicine; the French Department of Health accused him of illegally practicing medicine in 1991, and he was found guilty of malpractice in 1994. However, for a time he found the powerful support of President François Mitterrand (via a homeopath called Philippe de Kuyper), who suffered from advanced prostate cancer. In 1996, his laboratory was seized. The same year, Beljanski suffered from leukemia, and died in 1998. In 2002, the European court of human rights ruled that the length of a second criminal investigation had been excessive and made a financial award to his widow.
Death and legacy.
Beljanski died from cancer in Paris on 27 October 1998.
A Beljanski Foundation was set up, with a branch in the United States that focuses on environmental toxins.
The two compounds he believed were active against cancer were studied again by teams at the Columbia University, the Kansas University Medical Center, and the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. So far, all demonstrations were done "in vitro" or "in vivo", but not under double-blind clinical trials, a indispensable requirement.
Publications.
Full list 