Nobel Prize in medicine shared

THE discovery of the Aids virus and the role of viruses in cervical cancer has led to Germany’s Harald zur Hausen and French researchers Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier sharing the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine.

Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier were cited for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV; Zur Hausen was cited for finding human papilloma viruses that cause cervical cancer.

The German scientist received half of the 10 million kronor (€1.19m) prize, while the French researchers shared the other half.

Zur Hausen, 72, of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg was delighted with the award.

“I’m not prepared for this,” he said. “We’re drinking a little glass of bubbly right now.”

In its citation, the Nobel Assembly said Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier’s discovery was one prerequisite for understanding the biology of Aids and its treatment with antiviral drugs. The pair’s work in the early 1980s made it possible to study the virus closely. That in turn let scientists identify important details in how HIV replicates and how it interacts with the cells it infects, the citation said. It also led to ways to diagnose infected people and to screen blood for HIV, which has limited spread of the epidemic and helped scientists develop anti-HIV drugs.

“The combination of prevention and treatment has substantially decreased spread of the disease and dramatically increased life expectancy among treated patients,” the citation said.

Zur Hausen “went against current dogma” when he found that some kinds of human papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer. He realised that DNA of HPV could be detected in tumours, and uncovered a family of HPV types, only some of which cause cancer.

Barre-Sinoussi is director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Union at the Institut Pasteur in France, while Mr Montagnier is the director for the World Foundation for Aids Research in Prevention, also in the French capital.