Luc Montagnier

While studying retroviruses and cancers cells in the 1980s, researcher Luc Montagnier published a paper about the isolation of a virus from the immune system cells of a patient showing symptoms of what would soon be known as AIDS. That virus, HIV, was later proved to be related to AIDS, a disease that mystified doctors. Montagnier’s work went unnoticed until Robert Gallo, an American scientist, published the same conclusions and sought to profit from kits to detect the virus. Montagnier sued, and the case, which went on for two decades, included the intervention of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and French President Jacques Chirac. It was eventually resolved amicably, but the controversy did much to cloud both Montagnier’s and Gallo’s scientific careers in the meantime. Luc Montagnier describes this scientist’s groundbreaking work with retroviruses and cancer cells, as well as his later research, his work as the head of an international AIDS charity, and the many honors he won for his achievements, culminating in the Nobel Prize in 2008.