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A bitter battle between AIDS researchers Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier over credit for discovering HIV and the resultant blood test has come to an end, with the announcement this week that the researchers will collaborate on developing AIDS vaccines for Africa.

Gallo, who heads the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Montagnier, who recently retired from France’s Pasteur Institute plan to merge their vaccine approaches.

“A whole lot of people say, ‘Why can’t you guys collaborate, why don’t you work together to try to help solve the problem?’” says Gallo. But Montagnier cites another reason: “If we join our efforts, it will be more credible for fund-raising. … We have some names that can help.”

Reference: Science 295, 1441 (2002)