Stockholm: Harald zur Hausen of Germany, and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2008.

"The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2008 with one half to Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer and the other half jointly to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)," a statement issued by the Nobel Foundation said.

Harald zur Hausen, 72, of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg "went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women", the statement added.

The discovery of HIV by Barré-Sinoussi, 61, and Montagnier, 76, was "one prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its antiretroviral treatment", it said. IANS