| Luc Montagnier |
Article Index for Luc |
Website Links For Luc |
Information AboutLuc Montagnier |
|
Luc Montagnier (born 1932 ) is a French Virologist . In 1982 he was asked for assistance with establishing the possible underlying retroviral cause of a mysterious new Syndrome , AIDS , by Dr. Willy Rozenbaum, a clinician at the ''Hôpital Bichat'' hospital in Paris . Rozenbaum's role was vital, as he had been openly speculating at scientific meetings that the cause of the disease might be a Retrovirus , and it was from a Lymph Node Biopsy taken from one of Rozenbaum's patients that the breakthrough was to come. By 1983 , this group of scientists and doctors, led by this time by the aforementioned Montagnier discovered the causative virus (Barré-Sinoussi et al., 1983). They gave it the name lymphadenopathy-associated virus, or LAV. A year later a team led by Dr. Robert Gallo of the United States confirmed the discovery of the virus, but they renamed it human T lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) (Popovic et al., 1984 ). He eventually discovered HIV and encountered international disdain (see AIDS Reappraisal ) after declaring in 1990 that HIV cannot cause AIDS on its own, but needed a Cofactor which he believes is a Mycoplasma . Montagnier's research was conducted at the of France and President Reagan of the USA met that the major issues were ironed out. The scientific protagonists finally agreed to share credit for the discovery of HIV, and in 1986, both the French and the US names (LAV and HTLV-III) were dropped in favour of the new term ''human immunodeficiency virus'' (HIV) (Coffin, 1986). Luc Montagnier is the co-founder of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention and co directs the Program for International Viral Collaboration. He has received more than 20 major awards, including the Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur, the Lasker Prize, and the Gairdner Prize. QUOTES
|
|
|