Background

Ethnicity: Luc Montagnier’s mother was raised at the Loire Valley, and his father’s parents came from Auvergne.

Luc Montagnier was born on August 18, 1932, in Chabris. He is a son of Antoine Montagnier, an accountant, and Marianne Montagnier (maiden name Rousselet), a housewife.

Education

Luc Montagnier became interested in science in his early childhood through his father, an accountant by profession, who carried out experiments on Sundays in a makeshift laboratory in the basement of the family home. At age fourteen, Montagnier himself conducted 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.

Luc adored reading books on science in his childhood. He had good progress while studying at school, and even excelled many of his classmates in physics and chemistry but not in math. That’s why, after graduating from the College de Chatellerault, Montagnier registered both in the School of Medicine and in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Poitiers. He spent the first half of the day at the School exploring human biology and the afternoon at Poitiers studying botany, zoology, and geology.

Montagnier received the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences from the University of Poitier in 1953. Continuing his studies at the institution and then at the University of Paris, he received his Master of Science degree two years later.

Career

The start of Luc Montagnier’s career can be counted from his service at the University of Paris the science faculty of which he joined in 1955 as an assistant professor. Five years later, he was appointed a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) but then went to London for three and a half years to do research at the Medical Research Council at Carshalton.

The virus research group at Carshalton was investigating ribonucleic acid (RNA), a form of nucleic acid that normally is involved in taking genetic information front deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (the main carrier of genetic information) and translating it into proteins. Montagnier and F. K. Sanders, investigating 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.

From 1963 to 1965, Montagnier did research at the Institute of Virology (currently Centre for Virus Research) in Glasgow, Scotland. Working with Ian MacPherson, he discovered in 1964 that agar, a gelatinous extractive of a red alga, was an excellent substance for culturing cancer cells. Their technique became standard in laboratories 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.

During the seven following years, Luc 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 on the request of the then Institute’s head. 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 retroviruses as the cause of cancer.

Retroviruses possess an enzyme called reverse transcriptase. Luc 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 multiplying 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 cloning of 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.

In 1975, J. C. Chermann and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi joined the unit founded by Montagnier. Soon, they became involved in Montagnier’s study of retroviruses in human cancers.

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), a tragic epidemic that emerged in the early 1980s, was first adequately characterized around 1982. By 1993, more than three million people had developed full-blown AIDS. Although the cases of the disease in France weren’t frequent at that time they attracted the attention of young immunologists. Willy Rozenbaum who served at the Hôpital Bichat was one of such enthusiasts. In 1982, he invited Montagnier and his unite members to assist him in the search of the causes of the syndrome called gay-related immune deficiency or GRID by the time.

The scientist believed 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 lymphadenopathy. Obtaining some tissue culture from the lymph nodes of an infected patient in 1983, Montagnier, along with Chermann and Barré-Sinoussi, 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. Montagnier and his group also discovered that HIV attacks T4 cells which are crucial in the immune system. A second similar but not identical HIV virus called HIV-2 was discovered by Montagnier and colleagues in April 1986. Four years later, the scientist headed the department of AIDS and retroviruses at the Pasteur Institute.

Luc Montagnier’s ongoing research has been focused on the search for an AIDS vaccine or cure. He is among the co-founders of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention and among the directors of Program for International Viral Collaboration. He has also co-founded and co-directed the World Foundation for Medical Research and Prevention situated in Houston.

In 2009, Montagnier published the results of his research on electromagnetic signals from DNA. The papers received controversial reviews. They were supported by homeopaths and criticized by the majority of scientists.

Achievements

• Luc Montagnier is perhaps best known for his 1983 discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which has been identified as the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). After the virus (HIV) had been isolated, it was possible to develop a test for antibodies that had developed against it, the HIV test. However, in the twenty years before the onset of the AIDS epidemic, Montagnier made many significant discoveries concerning the nature of viruses. He made major contributions to the understanding of how viruses can alter the genetic information of host organisms and significantly advanced cancer research. His investigation of interferon, one of the body’s defenses against viruses, also opened avenues for medical cures for viral diseases.
  
  The discovery of double-stranded RNA virus made by Montagnier and F. K. Sanders represented a significant advance in knowledge concerning viruses.

Works

More photos

• book

  • New Concepts in AIDS Pathogenesis

    (The book edited by Luc Montagnier offers comprehensive ex...)

    1993
  • Oxidative Stress in Cancer, AIDS, and Neurodegenerative Diseases

    (Based on a conference on Oxidative Stress and Redox Regul...)

    1997
  • AIDS Research at EC Level

    (At EC level the fight against AIDS, one of the major heal...)

    1995
  • Virus

    (In the early 1980s the body of evidence for a virus of ep...)

    2000

Religion

Luc Montagnier was raised as a Catholic but later fascinated by scientific knowledge he left the religion behind.

Membership

Luc Montagnier was accepted to the Académie Nationale de Médecine (National Academy of Medicine) in 1989.

• Académie Nationale de Médecine , France

  1989

Personality

Luc Montagnier has described himself as an aggressive researcher who spends much time either in the laboratory or traveling to scientific meetings. He enjoys swimming and classical music, and loves to play the piano, especially sonatas by Mozart.

Physical Characteristics: Luc Montagnier was injured by a high-speed car at the age of five. He has kept some scars from the accident.

Interests

• classical music, playing piano

• Sport & Clubs

  swimming

• Music & Bands

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Connections

Luc Montagnier married Dorothea Ackerman in 1961. The family produced three children named Jean-Luc, Anne-Marie, and Francine.

Father:

Antoine Montagnier

Mother:

Marianne Montagnier

Spouse:

Dorothea Ackermann

Son:

Jean-Luc Montagnier

Daughter:

Anne-Marie Montagnier

Daughter:

Francine Montagnier

colleague:

Francoise Barré-Sinoussi

colleague:

Jean-Claude Chermann

mentor:

Pierrre Gavaudan

References

• The Race to Discover the AIDS Virus: Luc Montagnier vs Robert Gallo Stuart Kallen chronicles this riveting human tale about a bitter scientific rivalry that accompanied the discovery of the AIDS virus.
  2012