The 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the supreme honour awarded by the Swedish Academy of Stockholm, has been awarded to French researchers Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, for the discovery of the AIDS virus, and to the German scientist Harald zur Hausen for his research into the causes of cervical cancer. A major advance in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases.
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine recognises the discovery of two viruses which have had a particularly significant impact on medicine and on our modern society.
In January 1983, a team from the Pasteur Institute, directed by Professor Luc Montagnier, identified for the first time a virus different from any known before, called at the time Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus (LAV) and suspected of being responsible for AIDS. As early as 1984, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier obtained several isolates of this new human retrovirus which they named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). A short time after this preliminary work, other research groups provided definite proof of the involvement of HIV in the development of AIDS. “The discovery was essential to our present understanding of the biology of this disease and to its anti-retroviral treatment,” the Nobel committee pointed out in a communiqué.
HIV is responsible for one of the most significant pandemics of our times, making this disease one of the most serious health issues in the world. “The importance of their work has to be considered in the context of the epidemic present all over the world and which affects nearly 1% of the population,” the Nobel committee added.
Aged 76, Professor Luc Montagnier set up the department of virology at the Pasteur Institute in 1972. He worked there for thirty years before leaving France, where he had reached retirement age, to pursue his research in the United States. He ran the AIDS department at the Pasteur Institute from 1991 to 1997. A member of the French Academy of Medicine and Academy of Sciences, and a commander of the Légion d’honneur and of the French National Order of Merit, Professor Montagnier was put in charge of coordinating the fight against AIDS by the French government in April 1993.
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, aged 61, was a researcher at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), in 1975, before joining the Pasteur Institute where she was in charge of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit in the department of virology. She also directed the South-East Asia site of the French National Research Agency on AIDS and viral hepatitis (ANRS). She established collaborative work with the countries most badly afflicted with the AIDS epidemic, notably through the international network of Pasteur Institutes. “There is my life before 1983 and my life after 1983,” Mme Barré-Sinoussi declared to the press, stressing that she had then “entirely devoted her career to research on the virus, to the interactions between the virus and the human body, and with the developing countries today”.
The pioneering work of the two researchers has enabled the virus to be cloned, its mechanisms to be understood and blood screening tests to be developed. For Jean-François Delfraissy, director of the ANRS: “This award comes just at the right moment, at a time when many people consider the AIDS problem to be solved in both the North and South. This prize will encourage young people to answer the many unresolved questions, such as the issue of vaccination, control of the virus and new tools for prevention”.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine honours another virologist, the German scientist Harald zur Hausen, a researcher at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. He discovered the human papillomaviruses responsible for cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common form of cancer among women, after breast cancer. His discovery of the role of human papillomaviruses in cervical cancer has enabled the development of preventive screening methods and vaccination.
The Nobel Prizes, founded by Alfred Nobel, were first awarded in 1901. Each prize is endowed with 10 million Swedish kronor (1.02 million euros), which can be shared between up to three prizewinners for each category. The German researcher will receive half of the prize and the two French winners will share the other half.
These two major discoveries of the 20th century have not only contributed valuable information on viral infections, but are today enabling scientists the world over to make progress in their fight against AIDS and cervical cancer.
Annik Bianchini, Actualité en France
