Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who won the Nobel Prize for codiscovering human immunodeficiency virus, passed away Tuesday (February 8) at the age of 89. FranceSoir reports that he died “surrounded by his children,” at a medical facility in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. For years, Montagnier got extensive recognition for his deal with the infection that causes AIDS. In recent years, nevertheless, he had pushed away a lot of his colleagues by promoting fringe scientific theories and what they called “pseudoscience,” reports The Washington Post. Most recently, he had become a fierce opponent of coronavirus vaccines, and, in 2020, stirred controversy by promoting the theory that SARS-CoV-2 was created in a lab, according to the Associated Press.Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute in January, 1987 © GETTY Images, francois lochonMontagnier was the director of the Viral Oncology Unit at the Pasteur Institute in the 1980s, as the AIDS epidemic was raging in France. At the time, AIDS had no efficient treatments or known causes and was becoming a public health crisis. Healthy, young clients– who were primarily gay males– were falling frighteningly sick. Their body immune systems would end up being compromised, and they would contract unusual forms of cancer and pneumonia.Many medical professionals suspected that a retrovirus– a type of virus that inserts its DNA into the host– might be the cause, reports The New York Times. In 1983, Montagnier, a specialist in retroviruses, and his associate Françoise Barré-Sinoussi got a sample from a lymph node of a patient with early signs of the illness. According to the Post, Montagnier and his colleagues found viral activity in the tissue and separated what they dubbed lymphadenopathy associated virus (LAV). They reported this operate in the May 20, 1983 concern of Science. At the time, the post didnt get much attention, reports the Post. A year later on, an American scientist, Robert Gallo, released four articles verifying the link between HIV and AIDS. For many years later, the two researchers feuded about who had discovered the virus and when. Within years, nevertheless, the work led by Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and Gallo caused an HIV blood test and treatments for AIDS. Montagnier sued Gallo in 1985 for patenting the test in the United States, reports the Times. According to The Los Angeles Times, in 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France actioned in, signing a contract to share patent royalties for the test and announcing that both researchers had helped find the infection. Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi were bestowed the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for the viruss discovery, sharing it with Harald zur Hausen, a German virologist who discovered that human papillomaviruses cause cancer. The Nobel Committee said it believed “as to who had made the fundamental discoveries” concerning HIV, reports the New York Times. ” Never before has science and medicine been so quick to discover, recognize the origin and offer treatment for a new disease entity,” the committee added. “Successful antiretroviral treatment results in life span for persons with HIV infection now reaching levels comparable to those of uninfected individuals.” At the time that Nobel Prize was granted to Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi, more than 25 million people had passed away of AIDS, while 33 million were living with HIV around the world, according to the New York Times. In the early 2000s, Montagnier began revealing views that led to him being “shunned by much of the worldwide science neighborhood,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Around this time, according to the New York Times, he started carrying out non-traditional experiments. Among his research studies, published in a journal he established, claimed that DNA discharged electro-magnetic radiation and recommended that some bacterial DNA continues to discharge signals after an infection had actually been cleared. Simply in 2015, he claimed that COVID-19 vaccines caused the development of coronavirus variations, according to the Journal. Montagnier was born upon August 8, 1932 in Chabris, France, and was the only kid of Antoine and Marianne (Rousselet) Montagnier, reports the New York Times. He made his bachelors degree at the University of Poitiers, according to the Post, and his doctorate at the Sorbonne. He operated at the Virus Unit of the Medical Research Council in London from 1960 to 1963. Montagnier returned to Paris in 1965, reports the New York Times, and seven years later established and directed the Viral Oncology Unit at the Pasteur Institute.Montagnier is survived by his spouse, Dorothea Ackerman, his 2 children, Anne-Marie and Francine, and his son Jean-Luc..
For years, Montagnier got widespread acclaim for his work on the virus that triggers AIDS. Their immune systems would become jeopardized, and they would contract uncommon types of cancer and pneumonia.Many physicians believed that a retrovirus– a kind of infection that inserts its DNA into the host– could be the cause, reports The New York Times. In 1983, Montagnier, a professional in retroviruses, and his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi got a sample from a lymph node of a client with early signs of the disease. According to the Post, Montagnier and his associates found viral activity in the tissue and separated what they called lymphadenopathy associated virus (LAV). Within years, nevertheless, the work led by Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and Gallo led to an HIV blood test and treatments for AIDS.
