Nobels awarded for AIDS, cancer virus research

Two French scientists who discovered the AIDS virus and a German who defied convention in showing a viral cause for cervical cancer shared the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for breakthroughs that have led to lifesaving drugs and a vaccine.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France were cited for their discovery of HIV in 1983. They shared the award with Germany's Harald zur Hausen, who found that certain human papilloma viruses cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women worldwide.

Zur Hausen discovered that two types of HPV promote cervical cancer, bucking a prevailing idea that blamed a different kind of virus. He made the viruses available to the scientific community. That led to the development of HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer. Vaccination is recommended for millions of young women and girls in the U.S.

Zur Hausen will get half of the $1.4 million prize, while the two French scientists split the other half.

The discovery the AIDS virus by Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi was crucial to understanding the biology of AIDS and how to fight it, the Nobel Assembly said in its citation issued in Stockholm, Sweden. Since the scientists' work in the early 1980s, millions of people with HIV are still alive thanks to new drug treatments.

The announcement of the Nobel winners was notable for one scientist who was not named: U.S. researcher Dr. Robert Gallo, who almost 25 years ago also claimed credit for the discovery of HIV and who played a big role in research of the disease.

The dual claims led to a high-profile dispute between Gallo and Montagnier. They agreed publicly in 1987 to share the discovery credit equally, as part of a settlement of patent claims for an AIDS blood test. But Gallo later said he'd found that his lab's cultures had accidentally become contaminated with AIDS virus from Montagnier's lab.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent AIDS researcher and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., said the French scientists clearly identified HIV first and deserved Monday's honor.

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Gallo would have been "an obvious choice" to be included on the Nobel if the prize's rules had allowed for a fourth recipient, Fauci said. That's because of Gallo's role in showing HIV causes AIDS and in a technical advance that allowed HIV to be isolated, he said.

Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, told The Associated Press that it was "a disappointment" not to be included in the Nobel. But he said all three of the winners deserved the honor.

Reached in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he is attending an international AIDS conference, Montagnier said he wished Gallo had been included in the prize.

"It is certain that he deserved this as much as us two," he said.

Montagnier said the prize "encourages us all to keep going until we reach the goal at the end of this effort."

He said he remains optimistic about conquering AIDS. Progress in developing a vaccine to prevent it has been frustrating.

Barre-Sinoussi said that when she and Montagnier isolated the virus 25 years ago they hoped they would be able to prevent the global AIDS epidemic that followed.

Last year, more than 33 million people worldwide were living with HIV and 2.1 million died of AIDS, according to global health estimates. Two-thirds of HIV infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.

"We naively thought that the discovery of the virus would allow us to quickly learn more about it, to develop diagnostic tests _ which has been done _ and to develop treatments, which has also been done to a large extent and, most of all, develop a vaccine that would prevent the global epidemic," Barre-Sinoussi told the AP by telephone from Cambodia.

The Nobel citation noted that the French researchers' work had "substantially decreased spread of the disease and dramatically increased life expectancy among treated patients."

Barre-Sinoussi, 61, is director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Union at the Institut Pasteur in France, while Montagnier, 76, is the director for the World Foundation for AIDS Research in Prevention, also in the French capital.

In honoring Zur Hausen, the Nobel Assembly said he "went against current dogma" when he found that some kinds of human papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer. He was able to detect the DNA of HPV in tumors, and uncovered a family of HPV types, only some of which cause cancer.

The HPV virus, transmitted by sexual contact, causes genital warts that sometimes develop into cancer. The new cancer vaccines protect against the HPV strains that cause most cervical cancers.

When reached by the AP, Zur Hausen, 72, of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg said: "I'm not prepared for this. We're drinking a little glass of bubbly right now."

____

Associated Press writers Karl Ritter, Matt Moore and Malin Rising in Stockholm and Benoit Hili in Abidjan contributed to this report.

____

On the Net:

Nobel Foundation: http://nobelprize.org/

Comments

[eriana]

Congratulation to all of you,
The decision to give vaccination to American women are wise, but look at to Developing Countries.
They have serious problem also. We suggest to donor, doing some thing to prevent two kind of deceases. Thank you.

Voice from Developing Countries
Erny
http://www.baliglobalmarket.com

[obmode]

and the never ending drama of AIDS continues because not enough people will take the time to question the validity of the research or allow this to be decided in a court of law. hiv testing is fraudulent and cross-reactive. the leading cause of death for those diagnosed with AIDS is organ failure due to toxic hiv drugs according to the long term studies out over the past few years. http://www.youtube.com/hivquestions

[BlueZoo]

What a shame this great news is being overshadowed by the financial crisis right now. Thank heaven the Nobel committee FINALLY honored these men. They didn't get $40 Million golden parachutes or millions in salaries but they have saved thousands of lives by their research. Our priorities are so skewed!

[applehead]

i'm reading 'the prize' by irving wallace. a fascinating book. i recommend it to anyone interested in the nobel prize and its winners and the winner"s sex drives and emotional problems and their desire to live happily ever after. .

[Amennyc]

maybe after the USA decides if the world is more than 6,000 yrs old and if women came from a mans rib, they can once again be contenders for the prize.

[VA Lady2008]

I notice that Dr. Robert Gallo of NIH, he of the huge, self promoting ego, was not included in the prize.

[Anita-indep]

Good point! Except, what in the world has Gallo ever done?

[szlevi]

Anita,

you should read Pulitzer-winning journalist John Crewdson's (Chicago Tribune) "Science Fictions: A Scientific Mystery, a Massive Cover-up and the Dark Legacy of Robert Gallo" - it;s atruly fascinating story about this complete hackjob named Gallo, who never really discovered anything but embarrassed himself publicly so many times yet stlll almost pulled this last stunt, the "discoverer of the AIDS virus"... thanks for journalists like this guy he finally couldn't succeed - however he still managed to save his face and even stay in very high postition...


...read the book, it's a shocking story.

[Svendem]

Note also that while the maximum number of recipients is limited to three, it was split between the two discoveries (1/2, 1/4, 1/4). If they'd felt Gallo was that important, they could've devoted the entire prize to HIV and split it 1/3 all. I suppose Gallo and his supporters will complain unless they realize the futility of it. There's no appeal. No explanation is given beyond the press release. If you want to know the details of the decision you have to wait thirty years (I think it is) when they make public the minutes and notes of the committee.

[IhateNeoCons]

I am SOOO pleased that the giant fraud Gallo didn't get the prize. For those who don't know, he basically "rediscovered" the virus from what appeared to be the same sample as the Montagnier lab after they had already discovered it. This of course resulted in inquiries into his scientific honesty and integrity that were quashed by the U.S. government. Ultimately, the U.S. and French governments decided the issue and I believe the two groups shared "discovery". Now he has the temerity to be disappointed at not being named to the Nobel prize. Rarely do the Nobel committees get these things right. Usually it is a deserving person who gets screwed out of the recognition they should receive. Thankfully, a little justice was done today.

[Anita-indep]

For most other scientists, what Gallo did would be called "scientific fraud", which is what it was. Instead of getting punished, Gallo now heads [at tax payer expense] a virology Inst. at U. Md. AMAZING!

What Gallo basically did was this: He contacted Luc Montagnier and asked for the virus he discovered. So Luc sent Galla the virus [very generous of him, in the true scientific spirit of sharing]. Gallo then turned around and claimed that virus as his discovery!

The Nobel Committee was 100% correct in denying the thief [Gallo] the nobel prize. That was such a scam.....promoted by the clueless Repubs I might add.

[EuroAmerican]

Under a Palin-mediocracy,, top researchers will abandon the US and go to China, India, and Europe.

Joe-six-packs won't be winnin' any more Nobel Prizes.

("mediocracy" is a condition in which culture is subordinated to pseudo- egalitarian ideology. Symptoms include: dumbing, jargonism, infantilisation, vacuity....)

[Anita-indep]

They already are abondoning the US and going to other countries. This is the failed U.S. policy and public opinion which promotes ordinary-ism and sneers at intellectualism and science. Too bad, as scientific breakthroughs of today form the basis of the medicines of tomorrow.

[oldfrog]

hope that Gallo won't start a new spin, would only make him ridiculous