Oncogenes, Aneuploidy, and AIDS

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Oncogenes, Aneuploidy, and AIDS: A Scientific Life and Times of Peter H. Duesberg (ISBN 1556435312) is a 2004 book by Harvey Bialy. It is a scientific biography of his friend and fellow molecular biologist Peter Duesberg.

It covers in detail Duesberg's challenges to both the oncogene theory of cancer and the HIV/AIDS hypothesis. It also describes Duesberg's own explanations of cancer and AIDS: the aneuploidy hypothesis of cancer – the hypothesis that cancerous cells develop via chromosomal destabilization; and the "chemical-AIDS hypothesis" – the hypothesis that AIDS-defining diseases are caused by recreational and pharmaceutical drug abuse in North America and Western Europe and by malnutrition and poverty in Africa.

The book offers a startling insider's view of some of the procedures and politics of modern science, with special attention devoted to the political efforts to maintain both the virus-cancer and virus-AIDS programs.

1 Contents
2 Quotes
- 2.1 By Bialy
- 2.2 About the book
3 See also
4 Documents and external links
5 References

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What's in a Name
Hoof-beats on the Road to the Prize
One for the Gipper
Good Mourning America
Alpha and Omega
The Phoenix Almost Rises
The Idea Whose Time Had Come

Peter H. Duesberg's Curriculum Vitae
Index

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Quotes

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By Bialy

Harvey Bialy

"After the 'Policy Forum' appeared, Peter all but begged Dan to sanction another round, to no avail. And so just when it was getting good, the bout was declared a technical draw on an inexplicable and non-appealable decision of commissioner Koshland. There was never to be a rematch. The failure to extend the discussion in the pages of Science was significant. Most scientists have neither time nor inclination to follow specialist literature in fields outside their own. They depend, consequently, on journals like Science and Nature to tell them what is considered important. Having read, as best they could at the time, the arguments of the Policy Forum, and then seeing nothing more than vulgar anti-Duesberg editorials in the scientific press and worse in the popular media, even a partially persuaded non-specialist could and would eventually concur with the 'overwhelming evidence' of Team Virus, although it has become even less overwhelming now than it was in 1988." (Bialy 2004)
"Objective confirmation the most recent Duesberg review [2003 "Chemical Bases" paper with Koehnlein and Rasnick] mentioned above does not omit any important new findings regarding the presumed pathogenicity of HIV is contained in the July 2003 issue of Nature Medicine devoted to '20 Years of HIV Science.' In these pages Mario Stevenson from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in an eerie, persistent echo of the retired John Maddox’s words almost ten years previous, writes: '...the reason why HIV-1 infection is pathogenic is still debated and the goal of eradicating HIV-1 infection remains elusive.' Exactly how elusive is quite wonderfully described in an article from The New York Times of September 23, 2003, entitled 'Trying to Kill AIDS Virus by Luring It Out of Hiding.'... Perhaps the alternative explanation for the different consortia of diseases that go under the name of AIDS is not as unreasonable a hypothesis as Fauci pronounced fifteen years ago when he ranted in the pages of Science about the non-existent risks of non-existent, HIV-infected, sixty-year-old wives of hemophiliacs." (Bialy 2004)
"The paper [Duesberg et al.'s 2002 PNAS aneuploidy paper] clearly demonstrates that particular abnormal chromosome combinations (aneusomies) appear in chemically transformed Chinese hamster cells in vitro, and in tumors derived from these cells in vivo, with a much higher frequency than would be expected based on random chromosome shuffling. For example, 79% of in vitro-transformed cells had an extra copy of chromosome 3, and 59% had lost chromosome 10; moreover; 52% of the transformed cells shared this particular combination, much higher than the 0.6% expected if the aneusomies were the result of random chromosomal imbalances." (Bialy 2004)

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About the book

"Bialy's book is not one you can easily put down. I found myself thoroughly engaged and deeply moved by the saga of Peter Duesberg – evolving from a founder of cancer molecular biology to a pariah reviled by his peers... I invite you to read this fascinating book and decide for yourself whether Duesberg has a point. I took time from a busy schedule to see quickly how the saga would end, and came away enlightened by a rich body of information about issues of profound significance that cry out for resolution. The message is quite serious, but the presentation is buoyed by abundant humor and wit – a pleasure to read. This is one of those books that will inspire unending conversations with friends and colleagues. Rarely have I been as moved by a book as by this very scientific biography." — Gerald Pollack, professor of molecular bioengineering, University of Washington (Pollack 2006)
"The book is an extremely serious look at what happens when orthodoxies are challenged. It is also often outrageously funny and is impeccably argued and documented." – Susan Hassler, editor of IEEE Spectrum. (Hassler 2004)
"In his detailing of the academic trials, tribulations and recent emerging triumphs of professor Duesberg, Bialy provides a number of salient lessons. One of them is that something precious has been lost in our love affair with the technological marvels that permeate today’s biomedical science. It is, after all, the human cortex that sets the standards of excellence." – George Miklos, Director of Secure Genetics, and Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Human Genetic Signatures (Miklos 2004)
"It is a well-told tale with the humor of a sympathetic observer, a humor that reminds me not a little of the same incorruptible humor of his protagonist, Peter Duesberg – head and shoulders above the competition in so many ways..." – Kary Mullis, biochemist, 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Mullis 2004)
"Bialy's message in his hotly contested book Oncogenes, Aneuploidy, and AIDS: A Scientific Life & Times of Peter H. Duesberg is of crucial importance to everyone with an interest in the science that should underlie the practice of medicine." – Lynn Margulis and James MacAllister (Margulis & MacAllister 2006)