2020 Nobel Prize Lectures in Physiology or Medicine

Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice recount how an unexplained form of transfusion-associated hepatitis became an identifiable and treatable viral infection. Alter’s clinical and transmission studies distinguished non-A, non-B hepatitis from the known hepatitis viruses. Houghton’s molecular approach isolated genetic material from the elusive agent and enabled tests for hepatitis C infection. Rice’s experiments with viral RNA established that the newly identified virus could itself cause hepatitis and helped make its replication experimentally tractable. The lectures connect these complementary approaches to the development of safer blood supplies, experimental models and antiviral medicines, while showing how clinical observation, molecular cloning and causal experiments contributed different pieces of the discovery.