Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to three scientists who identified the liver cancer-psoriasis virus

Stockholm, Ta. Monday, October 5, 2020

The Nobel Prize in Medicine (Physiology) was announced today by the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee. The prize was jointly announced by US researchers Harvey Alter and Charles Rice and British scientist Michael Houghton.

Together, they identified the hepatitis C virus, which causes liver cancer and psoriasis. Which has made it possible to diagnose and treat this complex disease.

Together, the trio solved the mystery of hepatitis. The researchers knew about the hepatitis A and B viruses. But the hepatitis virus was a mystery to him.

This blood-borne hepatitis causes 7 million people to fall ill and four million to die each year. After these researchers discovered the hepatitis C virus, its treatment is now possible. Doctors can obtain information about hepatitis C by testing blood, which was not possible before.

The Nobel Committee noted that because of this discovery, for the first time in history, we can treat a disease caused by hepatitis C. The three researchers will be awarded 11. 11.18 million in addition to medals by the Nobel Committee, which will be shared equally between the three. Harvey is 75 years old and is affiliated with the American National Institutes of Health.

Michael is affiliated with the University of Alberta in Canada. Charles Rice, 58, works at Rockefeller University. Excessive alcohol consumption, toxic waste in the liver and other causes can lead to hepatitis. The 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Burch Bloomberg, a scientist who had previously discovered hepatitis B caused by a blood-borne virus.

The contribution of all three in detecting the virus

Harvey of America discovered an unknown virus that caused hepatitis. Based on this, Michael of Britain, after a thorough investigation of the virus, identified it and named it Hepatitis C. While a third British scientist Rice proved through his experiments that hepatitis can also be caused by Cena virus alone. That's how the three researchers came together to extract the entire coil of the virus.