Virus: The Co-discoverer of HIV Tracks Its Rampage and Charts the Future - Softcover

Montagnier, Luc

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393337030 ISBN 13: 9780393337037

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

Synopsis

In this autobiographical tale of that search, Luc Montagnier, relates the Institut Pasteur's role in investigating the AIDS virus and his group's success in identifying it before the National Health team. Filled with insights into controversies that arose over the questions of who discovered what, and when - a subject that generated almost as much new coverage as the disease itself - the book also conveys the scientific aspects of the disease and its devastating course throughout the world. Dr Montagnier's provides a commentary on critical subjects such as the possibilities for a vaccine, the current therapies available to AIDS patients and prospects for winning the battle against this virus.

About this title

Review

What drives science forward--ruthless competition, altruistic cooperation, or a bizarre amalgam of our highest and lowest aspirations? Some insight can be found in the search for the cause of AIDS, a scientific struggle in which the personalities and problems involved are equally dramatic. The Pasteur Institute's Luc Montagnier, one of the leading lights in the long fight against AIDS, tells his story and looks to the future in Virus, a combination scientific detective story and memoir. From his childhood in war-torn France to his dogged pursuit of HIV (or LAV, as he called it), he shows the passions and obstacles that guided him to his present position as one of the foremost experts on the virus and syndrome that continues to devastate the world.

Montagnier writes of his fabled rivalry with American researcher Robert Gallo, and the often-frustrating difficulties he faced in contributing to the global conversation about the then-mysterious killer AIDS. The competition has mellowed a bit now that the author has finally been given his due by the scientific establishment, and much of his book is devoted to explaining what we know about HIV and AIDS and what we can expect to see in the near future, using language that is clear, precise and engaging. Readers come away from Virus with the sense that ultimately scientists are more interested in doing good than in getting ahead, and that we are better served by keeping things that way. --Rob Lightner

About the Author

Luc Montagnier, MD, is professor of virology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, director of research at CNRS, and Salick Professor and Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Virology at Queens College, City University of New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393337030
• ISBN 13: 9780393337037
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260