Two French scientists who discovered the AIDS virus and a German who found the virus that causes cervical cancer have been awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology.

Germany, France take Nobel - 06 / 10 / 2008 13:51

Three European scientists share the first of this year’s Nobel awards - the medicine prize - for discovering viruses responsible for two serious human diseases.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes Aids, while Harald zur Hausen of Germany went against current thinking to postulate correctly that human papilloma virus (HPV) causes cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in women.

Best known of the three winners is Prof Montagnier (76), now director of the World Foundation for Aids Research and Prevention in Paris. During the 1980s he had a very public row with Robert Gallo, a US virologist, over who should receive scientific credit for discovering HIV.

The disagreement escalated into a diplomatic row between France and the US. In 1987 Profs Montagnier and Gallo and their national governments agreed to be recognised as co-discoverers of the virus, with profits from the discovery shared between them.

A combination photograph shows (L-R) German Professor Harald zur Hausen, French Professor Luc Montagnier and French virologist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi. Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi, two French scientists who discovered the AIDS virus, and Hausen, a German who found the virus that causes cervical cancer were awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology on October 6, 2008.

The Nobel Assembly has now given its verdict by recognising Prof Montagnier but not Prof Gallo.

Prof Montagnier’s half of the prize is shared with Prof Barré-Sinoussi (61) of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, with whom he worked from 1981 to discover the infectious agent responsible for what was then a mysterious new disease slowing destroying patients’ immune defences.

The two French scientists identified virus production in lymphocytes from patients in the early stages of Aids and in blood from patients in late stages of the disease.

The pathogen became known as human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.

”The discovery was one prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its treatment,” the Nobel Assembly said.

Prof zur Hausen (72) of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg discovered the role of HPV in cervical cancer in the 1970s, a time when most scientists doubted that viruses made a significant contribution to cancer.

 His discovery made a huge impact on the way scientists view the causes of cancer - and has led to vaccines that protect women against cervical cancer by preventing infection with HPV.

 He receives half of the 10m kronor ($800,000) prize, while the two French researchers share the other half.