Michael Houghton
Virologist
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He found the virus that was silently killing transfusion recipients worldwide — hepatitis C, invisible until 1989. The discovery turned a one-in-three blood-supply gamble into a one-in-two-million shot.
About
Born in 1949, Houghton worked through the 1980s chasing a pathogen no one could see. In 1986 he and his team co-discovered the hepatitis D genome. Three years later, alongside Qui-Lim Choo, George Kuo, and Daniel W. Bradley, he identified hepatitis C. Diagnostic tests followed fast, and antibody screening now prevents an estimated 40,000 new infections each year in the U.S. alone. He shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice. Today he directs the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta, where he holds the Canada E…
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