The discovery of

Hepatitis C virus
Hepatitis C virus
Hepatitis C is an inflammation of the liver caused by the hepatitis C
virus. The virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in
severity from a mild illness to a serious, lifelong illness including liver
cirrhosis and cancer.
 Michael Houghton

Sir Michael Houghton is a British scientist and Nobel Prize

laureate. Along with Qui-Lim Choo, George Kuo and Daniel W.
Bradley, he co-discovered Hepatitis C in 1989. He also co-
discovered the Hepatitis D genome in 1986. The discovery of
the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) led to the rapid development of
diagnostic reagents to detect HCV in blood supplies, which has
reduced the risk of acquiring HCV through blood transfusion from
one in three to about one in two million. It is estimated that
antibody testing has prevented at least 40,000 new infections per
year in the US alone and many more worldwide.
Born in the United Kingdom in 1949, his father was a truck driver
and union official. He was educated at Alleyn's School. At the age
of 17 he became inspired to become a microbiologist after
reading about Louis Pasteur. Houghton won a scholarship to
study at the University of East Anglia graduating with a lower
second class honours degree in biological sciences in 1972, and
subsequently completed his PhD degree in biochemistry at King's
College London in 1977.
 Harvey J. Alter

Harvey James Alter is an American medical researcher, virologist,

medical researcher, virologist, and Nobel Prize laureate, who is
best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C
virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section
and the associate director for research of the Department of
Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical
Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda,
Maryland. In the mid-1970s, Alter and his research team
demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not
due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently,
Alter and Edward Tabor, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, proved through transmission studies in
chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called "non-A,
non-B hepatitis" caused the infections, and that the causative
agent was probably a virus. This work eventually led to the
discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1988, for which he shared
 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along
with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice.

Charles M. Rice

Charles Moen Rice (born August 25, 1952) is an American

virologist and Nobel Prize laureate whose main area of research
is the Hepatitis C virus. He is a professor of virology at
the Rockefeller University in New York City and an adjunct
professor at Cornell University and Washington University School
of Medicine. At the time of the award he was a faculty at
Rockefeller.
Rice is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, member of the National Academy of Sciences and
was president of the American Society for Virology from 2002 to
2003. He received the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical
Research Award, jointly with Ralf F. W.
Bartenschlager and Michael J. Sofia. Along with Michael
Houghton and Harvey J. Alter, he was awarded the 2020 Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of Hepatitis
C virus."