French scientists

Germany's Harald zur Hausen and France's Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi share the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded October 6th. Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier discovered HIV. Shortly after [reports:imports] in the early 1980s of a new immunodeficiency syndrome, researchers all over the world raced to find the cause. The two French scientists [cultured:featured] cells from lymph nodes of patients. They first detected the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which meant that a retrovirus was active. Further searching turned up retroviral particles, which could kill white blood cells and which also reacted with antibodies from infected patients. These discoveries made [possible:sure] unprecedented rapid [development:management] of blood screening techniques and of new antiviral therapies.