Luc Montagnier
Luc Antoine Montagnier ( born August 18, 1932 in Chabris ) is a French virologist and Nobel laureate.
Life
After school Montagnier studied in Poitiers and Paris. From 1955 he worked at the University of Paris, 1965-1971 at the Radium Institute in Paris. 1972 Luc Montagnier became head of the virology department at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which he led from 1985 as a professor. From 1991 to 1997 he was Head of the Department of AIDS and Retroviruses in the same institute. In 1997 he transferred to Queens College of the City University of New York, where he was until 2001 Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Biology.
He was head of the working group established in 1983, first isolated the HIV virus is now known as causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS.
The virus was initially called " lymphadenotropes virus" or " lymphadenopathy -associated virus " ( LAV ). There was a lengthy legal dispute over the patent for the first HIV antibody test because Montagnier half a year before Robert Gallo, the patent applied for it, but Robert Gallo got it rather granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This dispute was finally resolved at the highest level by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and ended in 1987 with a comparison. Years later, Robert Gallo admitted that Montagnier was the first who discovered the HIV virus.
2003, Montagnier worked as a consultant in the HIV trial in Libya.
Montagnier is married and has two daughters and a son.
Controversial positions
In July 2010 Montagnier presented at a conference a new method for the detection of viral infections. He claimed that solutions containing the DNA of pathogenic bacteria and viruses such as HIV, are able to emit low-frequency radio waves, which prompted the surrounding water molecules to arrange into nanostructures. These water molecules could also in turn emit radio waves. Water retain these properties even if no viral or bacterial DNA was more detectable. Doctors could use the radio waves to detect disease. Montagnier's claims are highly controversial for its alleged closeness to water memory theory of contemporary homeopathy. In an interview for the film House of Numbers (2009 ) claimed Montagnier, that a healthy diet, antioxidants, and hygiene in the fight against AIDS are more important than relevant drugs. A healthy immune system, enhanced by a healthy diet and lifestyle should be able, after his thesis to be able to eliminate the HIV virus without medication completely. This statement contradicts the current view that AIDS can not be cured with the resources available today.
Awards
In 1986 Montagnier the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, the Louis -Jeantet Prize and the Körber European Science Award, 1987 Gairdner Foundation International Award a. Together with Robert Gallo, he was awarded in 1988 for the discovery of the HIV virus with the Japan Prize. In 1990, Montagnier the Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award. He was awarded the King Faisal Prize for Medicine in 1994 with the AH Heineken Prize for Medicine in 1993. In 2000 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research. 2008 Montagnier was awarded with Françoise Barré -Sinoussi one half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the HIV virus.