Montagnier, Luc WORLD OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY400•
Montagnier was born in Chabris (near Tours), France,
the only child of Antoine Montagnier and Marianne Rousselet.
He became interested in science in his early childhood through
his father, an accountant by profession, who carried out exper-
iments on Sundays in a makeshift laboratory in the basement of
the family home. At age fourteen, Montagnier himself con-
ducted nitroglycerine experiments in the basement laboratory.
His desire to contribute to medical knowledge was also kindled
by his grandfather’s long illness and death from colon cancer.
Montagnier attended the Collège de Châtellerault, and
then the University of Poitiers, where he received the equiva-
lent of a bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences in 1953.
Continuing his studies at Poitiers and then at the University of
Paris, he received his licence ès sciences in 1955. As an assis-
tant to the science faculty at Paris, he taught physiology at the
Sorbonne and in 1960, qualified there for his doctorate in
medicine. He was appointed a researcher at the Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.) in 1960, but
then went to London for three and a half years to do research
at the Medical Research Council at Carshalton.
Viruses are agents that consist of genetic material sur-
rounded by a protective protein shell. They are completely
dependent on the cells of a host animal or plant to multiply, a
process that begins with the shedding of their own protein
shell. The virus research group at Carshalton was investigating
ribonucleic acid(RNA), a form of nucleic acid that normally isinvolved in taking genetic information from deoxyribonucleic
acid(DNA) (the main carrier of genetic information) and trans-
lating it into proteins. Montagnier and F. K. Sanders, investi-
gating viral RNA (a virus that carries its genetic material in
RNA rather than DNA), discovered a double-stranded RNA
virus that had been made by the replication of a single-stranded
RNA. The double-stranded RNA could transfer its genetic
information to DNA, allowing the virus to encode itself in the
genetic make-up of the host organism. This discovery repre-
sented a significant advance in knowledge concerning viruses.
From 1963 to 1965, Montagnier did research at the
Institute of Virologyin Glasgow, Scotland. Working with Ian
MacPherson, he discovered in 1964 that agar, a gelatinous
extractive of a red alga, was an excellent substance for cultur-
ing cancer cells. Their technique became standard in laborato-
ries investigating oncogenes (genes that have the potential to
make normal cells turn cancerous) and cell transformations.
Montagnier himself used the new technique to look for cancer-
causing viruses in humans after his return to France in 1965.
From 1965 to 1972, Montagnier worked as laboratory
director of the Institut de Radium (later called Institut Curie)
at Orsay. In 1972, he founded and became director of the viral
oncology unit of the Institut Pasteur. Motivated by his findings
at Carshalton and the belief that some cancers are caused by
viruses, Montagnier’s basic research interest during those
years was in retrovirusesas a potential cause of cancer.
Retroviruses possess an enzyme called reverse transcriptase.
Montagnier established that reverse transcriptase translates the
genetic instructions of the virus from the viral (RNA) form to
DNA, allowing the genes of the virus to become permanently
established in the cells of the host organism. Once established,
the virus can begin to multiply, but it can do so only by multi-
plying cells of the host organism, forming malignant tumors.
In addition, collaborating with Edward De Mayer and
Jacqueline De Mayer, Montagnier isolated the messenger
RNA of interferon, the cell’s first defense against a virus.
Ultimately, this research allowed the cloningof interferon
genes in a quantity sufficient for research. However, despite
widespread hopes for interferon as a broadly effective anti-
cancer drug, it was initially found to be effective in only a few
rare kinds of malignancies.
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), an epi-
demic that emerged in the early 1980s, was first adequately
characterized around 1982. Its chief feature is that it disables
the immune systemby which the body defends itself against
numerous diseases. It is eventually fatal. By 1993, more than
three million people had developed AIDS. Montagnier consid-
ered that a retrovirus might be responsible for AIDS.
Researchers had noted that one pre-AIDS condition involved
a persistent enlargement of the lymph nodes, called lym-
phadenopathy. Obtaining some tissue culturefrom the lymph
nodes of an infected patient in 1983, Montagnier and two col-
leagues, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Jean-Claude
Chermann, searched for and found reverse transcriptase,
which constitutes evidence of a retrovirus. They isolated a
virus they called LAV (lymphadenopathy-associated virus).
Later, by international agreement, it was renamed HIV, human
immunodeficiency virus. After the virus had been isolated, itLuc Montagnierwomi_M 5/7/03 7:53 AM Page 400