The Race to Discover the AIDS Virus: Luc Montagnier vs Robert Gallo (Scientific Rivalries and Scandals)

About this book

In the early 1980s doctors sounded the alarm. A mysterious new diseaseacquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDSwas spreading around the world. While many of the first AIDS patients were gay men no one seemed to be immune from the deadly blood-borne disease. Researchers set to work to discover what was causing AIDS. They suspected a virus. Two teams of scientistsone in the United States and one in Franceworked tirelessly to identify the virus and to develop a blood test to detect it. The news on April 23 1984 that the U.S. team led by Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute had isolated the virus was a cause for celebration. But in Paris France Luc Montagnier and his team at the Pasteur Institute were furious and frustrated. They had uncovered the AIDS virus they claimed and now Gallo was taking credit for their discovery. The battle over who would be recognized for discovering the AIDS virus is a complex and compelling story filled with mystery deception and hope. It involves sophisticated microbiology the coveted Nobel Prize in Medicine big egos and great amounts of money. In this book author Stuart Kallen chronicles this riveting human tale about a bitter scientific rivalry.