THIS year鈥檚 Nobel prize for medicine might reopen old wounds over who discovered the virus that causes AIDS.
Robert Gallo, long credited as a co-discoverer of HIV in 1984, when he was at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, was notably absent from Monday鈥檚 announcement. Instead, French researchers Luc Montagnier and Fran莽oise Barr茅-Sinoussi received the award for discovering the virus at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
Frances Gotch, who studies HIV at Imperial College London, says that despite a long-running dispute between Gallo and Montagnier over who discovered the virus, the pair seemed to have put the saga behind them.
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鈥淚 would鈥檝e given it to all three, so it could all be put to rest,鈥� says Gotch. 鈥淚 hope this doesn鈥檛 stir it all up again.鈥�
