ABOVE: © NOBEL MEDIA 2020. ILLUSTRATION: NIKLAS ELMEHED
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Harvey Alter of the US National Institutes of Health, Michael Houghton of the University of Alberta, and Charles Rice of the Rockefeller University “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus,” the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced today (October 5).
“When the virus was discovered, it killed half a million people every year. This discovery led to the characterization of the virus and led to the development of tests by which you can screen blood products,” Jens Bukh, a virologist at the University of Copenhagen who has worked with Alter, tells The Scientist. “This literally eliminated hepatitis C as a transmissible agent from blood transfusions.”
“Canada won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923, and no researcher at a Canadian university has won since then. This is a huge ...
