Share of Nobel Prize in Medicine Goes to HIV Researchers

Half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine will be shared by two researchers credited with their discovery of HIV. French researchers Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi will be honored for their discovery of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Missing from the honor is US researcher Robert Gallo who also discovered the virus in separate research in the US. In the early 80's, scientists raced to find a cause of AIDS. Gallo, then at the National Cancer Institute, announced in April 1984 that he had discovered the virus that causes AIDS. He said the virus was different from one identified by the French researchers. It turned out that Gallo was working with a sample contaminated in Montagnier's lab. After years of sharing the discovery, the Nobel committee seems to have settled the argument.

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