Luc Montagnier, the French virologist, passed away on February 8, 2022, in Paris, at the age of 89. He shared the Nobel Prize with Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, in 2008, for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Luc Montagnier and Barré-Francoise Sinoussi shared half of the Nobel with German virologist, Harald Zur Hausen, for his discovery of human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer.
Luc Montagnier was born on August 18, 1932 in the central French town of Chabris. He was the only child of Antoine and Marianne Montagnier. His father was an accountant, and his mother was a homemaker. In 1961, Montagnier married Dorothea Ackerman, and they had three children. After completing his schooling, he went on to earn degrees in science. He studied medicine in Poitiers and Paris. He then worked at the Paris’s Faculty of Sciences in 1955. He earned a PhD in virology from the University of Paris. Luc Montagnier stated that his father’s makeshift chemical laboratory in their garage had inspired him to become a doctor and recent scientific discoveries in 1957, inspired him to become a virologist in the rapidly advancing field of molecular biology.
Luc Montagnier joined the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France, in 1960. He also worked at the Virus Unit of the Medical Research Council in London at the Institute of Virology in Glasgow, Scotland, for some time during 1960s. During his tenure in Glasgow, he and his colleague discovered the first double-stranded RNA virus, and a new way to culture cancer cells. He then returned to Paris. He became the head of the Virology Oncology Unit of Pasteur Institute in France, in 1972. It was at Pasteur Institute, where he undertook the crucial research, that earned him the Nobel Prize for discovering HIV virus. In 1997 he moved to the Queens College, City University of New York. In 2010, he accepted a professorship at the Jiao Tong University, in Shanghai, to investigate DNA emissions, and was there for about two years before returning to Paris.
Discovery of HIV
In January 1983, while Montagnier was working with the Viral Oncology Unit at the Pasteur Institute, his discovery of HIV began. He received a piece of lymph node that had been removed from a 33-year-old patient with AIDS. The doctor who was treating the patient wanted Luc Montagnier to examine the virus, as the latter was an expert letter in studying retroviruses. Retrovirus is the type of virus that has RNA, but, takes control of the host cell’s DNA and uses a special enzyme called reverse transcriptase to translate its genetic information into DNA. When this had happened, there was no known cause or diagnostic tests, or effective treatments for AIDS. It was suspected that the disease was triggered by a kind of germ that slips into the host cell’s DNA and takes control of it. As the virus works in a reversal way than the normal virus, it was named as retrovirus.
At that point of time, the real cause of AIDS was not known, and Luc Montagnier and his fellow scientist, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, isolated the retrovirus from this sample and named it lymphadenopathy associated virus (LAV). In May 1983, they published their landmark findings in the journal, Science, concluding that further studies were necessary to prove LAV caused AIDS.
During the same time, a team of scientist led by Robert Gallo at the National Institutes of Health, USA published four articles on the similar findings in the journal, Science. He confirmed the discovery of the virus and presented the evidence that it caused AIDS. Robert Gallo named the virus ‘human T-lymphotropic virus type III’ (HTLV-III) because of perceived similarities with HTLV-I and II. HTLV-I and HTLV-II had been previously been discovered in his lab.
Due to the timings of the discoveries, whether Montagnier’s or Gallo’s group was first to isolate HIV remained a subject of dispute for a long time. This had also led to the confusion over whether HTLV-III and LAV are the same, leading to a public fallout between the researchers. The dispute over who first identified HIV virus caused years of heated debate.
Montagnier sued Gallo for using his discovery for a US patent. However, the suit was settled out of court. In 1986, the virus that causes AIDS, known by Americans as HTLV-III, and French as LAV, was officially given a single name – HIV.
In 1991, Robert Gallo admitted that the virus he found was from the sample which he received from the Pasteur Institute. Montagnier and Gallo shared many prestigious awards. Among them, was the prestigious Albert Lasker Medical Research Award, which honoured both, Montagnier for discovering the virus, and Gallo for linking it to AIDS. Both, Montagnier and Gallo in 2002, admitted in public that Montagnier’s team had discovered HIV, but it was Gallo’s team which first showed its role in causing AIDS. They then announced that they would work together to develop a vaccine for AIDS.
In November 2002 issue of the journal ‘Science‘, Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo published a series of articles. Among them one was co-written by both the scientists in which, they acknowledged the pivotal roles played by each of them in the discovery of HIV.
Nobel Prize for Physiology 2008
Robert Gallo was widely credited for putting things together in connection between HIV and AIDS. However, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine attributed the discovery to Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barré-Sinoussi alone, and awarded half the Nobel Prize jointly to them and controversially did not mention Robert Gallo.
Contrary to the views of other AIDS experts, during his acceptance speech, Montagnier mentioned that he was surprised that Robert Gallo was not recognised by the Nobel Committee.
Other Achievements
Luc Montagnier was the co-founder of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, and co-directed the Program for International Viral Collaboration. He was also the founder of Houston-based World Foundation for Medical Research and Prevention.
Apart from the prestigious Nobel Prize, he was the recipient of the highest French order of merit, Légion d’honneur (Knight: 1984; Officer: 1990; Commander: 1993; Grand Officer: 2009). In 1986, he was awarded the Lasker Award for his major contributions to medical science by the Lasker foundation. He is also the recipient of Scheele Award given by the Swedish Apotekarsocietenten, to commemorate the famous pharmacist and chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. In 1986, he also received the Louis-Jeantet Prize for medicine. In 1987, he received the Canada Gairdner International Award for outstanding discoveries and contributions to medical science. The Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement was conferred to Montagnier in 1987. In 1993, King Faisal International Prize, known as Arab Nobel Prize, was given to him. For his notable contributions to medicine, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in 2000.
Luc Montagnier was also a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine. He was awarded the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD) from Whittier College, California.
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