Dr. Harvey Alter | NIH
Dr. Harvey Alter, a National Institutes of Health intramural researcher, was one of three people to win the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter, a senior scholar at the NIH Clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine in Bethesda, shared the prize with Michael Houghton of the University of Alberta in Canada and Charles Rice of Rockefeller University in New York City.
According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, “The discovery of the Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.”
In a new release from the NIH, Alter said, I am overwhelmed at the moment, but so pleased that this originally obscure virus has proven to have such a large global impact.” He went on to thank the NIH “for creating the permissive and collaborative environment that supported these studies over the course of decades. I don’t believe my contributions could have occurred anywhere else.”
Alter has been with the NIH for more than 50 years. He realized many patients with Hepatitis B developed chronic hepatitis due to an unknown agent. His research helped show that blood from these patients could transmit the disease to chimpanzees and that the unknown agent had the characteristics of a virus. This work led to the scientific basis for instituting blood donor screening programs that have decreased the incidence of transfusion-transmitted hepatitis to near zero.
"The third time, I got up angrily to answer the phone … and it was Stockholm."
Harvey Alter's anger at being disturbed by a call in the night quickly changed when he learned he'd been awarded the 2020 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine. "The best alarm clock I ever had!" pic.twitter.com/oQliSC9F5a
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2020
“Harvey Alter is a scientist’s scientist — smart, creative, dedicated, persistent, self-effacing, intensely dedicated to saving lives,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “His work to identify the nature of the hepatitis C virus has led to dramatic advances in protecting the blood supply from this very serious illness, and ultimately to the development of highly successful therapy.”
Hepatitis, a liver inflammation, is a global threat to human health and is caused by viral infections. Alcohol abuse, environmental toxins and autoimmune disease also are causes.
Alter was born in New York in 1935 and received his medical degree at the University of Rochester Medical School. He trained in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital and the University Hospitals of Seattle. He joined the NIH in 1961 as a clinical associate. He left for several years to work at Georgetown University, returning to the NIH in 1969.
