German, Two French Researchers Share Nobel Prize in Medicine
Associated Press
OCTOBER 6, 2008, 9:46 P.M. ET
STOCKHOLM -- Germany's Harald zur Hausen and French researchers Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discovering the AIDS virus and the role of viruses in cervical cancer.
Ms. Barre-Sinoussi and Mr. Montagnier were cited for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV; Mr. zur Hausen was cited for finding human papilloma viruses that cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.
The German scientist received half of the 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) prize, while the two French researchers shared the other half. "I'm not prepared for this," Mr. zur Hausen, 72, of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, said. "We're drinking a little glass of bubbly right now."
In its citation, the Nobel Assembly said Ms. Barre-Sinoussi and Mr. 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.
Health Blog: Nobel Prize Eludes AmericanThe Nobel assembly said Mr. zur Hausen "went against current dogma" when he found that some kinds of human papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer. He realized that DNA of HPV could be detected in tumors, and uncovered a family of HPV types, only some of which cause cancer. The discovery led to an understanding of how HPV causes cancer and the development of vaccines against HPV infection, the citation said.
Ms. Barre-Sinoussi is director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Union at the Intsitut Pasteur in France, while Mr. Montagnier is the director for the World Foundation for Aids Research in Prevention, also in the French capital.
Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite, established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The economics prize is technically not a Nobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden's central bank.
The awards include the money, a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
Mr. Nobel left few instructions on how to select winners, but medicine winners are typically awarded for a specific breakthrough rather than a body of research.
Last year's medicine award went to U.S. researchers Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies and Briton Martin Evans for work that led to a powerful and widely used technique to manipulate genes in mice, which has helped scientists study heart disease, diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.
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