Discovering the Cause of AIDS
Prusiner, S.B.
Science 298: 26-7
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0091-7729 Document Number: 240977
Part of a special section featuring different perspectives on the scientific background behind the discovery and initial characterization of the HIV retrovirus. Luc Montagnier and colleagues at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and Robert Gallo and colleagues at the NIH played crucial roles in the discovery of the cause of AIDS. Although most scientists would agree that the identification of the cause of AIDS was a momentous scientific discovery, each stage of acquisition of new knowledge about the disease appeared to be accompanied by rancor between Montagnier and Gallo. In retrospect, Montagnier and his colleagues were undoubtedly the first to discover HIV. However, in equally important contributions, Gallo's team demonstrated that HIV causes AIDS. Both Montagnier and Gallo's research was facilitated by the earlier discovery by Gallo's laboratory of the cytokine interleukin-2, needed to grow cultured T lymphocytes that support HIV replication. The propagation of large amounts of HIV in cultured T cells allowed Gallo's group to develop a blood test for detecting HIV.