Nobel Prize in Medicine 2020 Winners: Harvey J Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M Rice Receive The Honour For Hepatitis C Virus Discovery

Stockholm, October 5: Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice, and Michael Houghton were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology on Monday. They received the honour for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. The head of the Nobel Committee, Thomas Perlmann, announced the winners in Stockholm. Nobel Prize 2019 in Physiology And Medicine: What is Hypoxia? William G Kaelin Jr, Peter J Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza’s Ground-Breaking Study Explained.

The Nobel Prize in a statement said, "This year’s Nobel Prize is awarded to three scientists who have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world." Nobel Prize 2019 in Physics Winner: James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz Jointly Awarded Honour.

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According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are over 70 million cases of hepatitis worldwide. The virus causes around 400,000 deaths each year. Hepatitis C is a chronic and a major cause of liver inflammation and cancer. It mainly caused by viral infections, although alcohol abuse, environmental toxins and autoimmune disease are also important causes. Notably, Blood-borne hepatitis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and causes more than a million deaths per year world-wide.

Know More About The Award Winners:

Harvey J. Alter was born in 1935 in New York. He received his medical degree at the University of Rochester Medical School, and trained in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital and at the University Hospitals of Seattle. In 1961, he joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical associate. He spent several years at Georgetown University before returning to NIH in 1969 to join the Clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine as a senior investigator.

Michael Houghton was born in the United Kingdom. He received his PhD degree in 1977 from King’s College London. He joined G. D. Searle & Company before moving to Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, California in 1982. He relocated to University of Alberta in 2010 and is currently a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology and the Li Ka Shing Professor of Virology at the University of Alberta where he is also Director of the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute.

Charles M. Rice was born in 1952 in Sacramento. He received his PhD degree in 1981 from the California Institute of Technology where he also trained as a postdoctoral fellow between 1981-1985. He established his research group at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis in 1986 and became full Professor in 1995. Since 2001 he has been Professor at the Rockefeller University, New York. During 2001-2018 he was the Scientific and Executive Director, Center for the Study of Hepatitis C at Rockefeller University where he remains active.

a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel, founded the Nobel Prize. Nobel Prize for physics, chemistry, medicine and literature prizes are awarded in Stockholm. However, the Nobel Prize for peace is given in Oslo.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 05, 2020 03:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).