AEGiS-AP: Rival AIDS Researchers Share Award

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Rival AIDS Researchers Share Award

The Associated Press; Saturday, April 18, 1998; 5:35 a.m. EDT

BOSTON (AP) -- Two researchers whose battle against a common foe turned them into bitter rivals will share a stage later this month when they are honored for their work in AIDS research.

Dr. Robert Gallo of the University of Maryland and Dr. Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Queens College in New York turned against each other in a dispute over who discovered the virus that causes the disease.

The two researchers are scheduled to accept the 10th annual Warren Alpert Foundation Award on April 30. The award honors scientists for treating diseases and saving lives.

"We'd like to lay some of those ghosts to rest," said John Mekalanos, chairman of microbiology at Harvard University. "I think the consensus of the scientific community is that these two individuals have to be honored together."

The dispute over who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, reached such a level in 1987 that President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France penned an agreement dividing millions of dollars in royalties from the AIDS blood test based on the two researchers' findings.

Four years ago, however, the U.S. government acknowledged that the French deserved a greater share of the royalties. The admission solidified the French position that Montagnier had isolated the virus in 1983, a year before Gallo.

Gallo's contribution -- as recognized by his being chosen to share the award -- was to find a way to grow large quantities of the elusive virus. This led to the virus being identified as the culprit in the collapse of the immune system.

"Gallo's lab was able to make the conclusive connection between that virus and the disease," John Coffin of Tufts University said. "But it took a long time to sort out that he and Montagnier had been working with the same virus."

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