Harvey J. Alter

Harvey J. Alter

Harvey James Alter is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. 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.

About Harvey J. Alter in brief

Summary Harvey J. AlterHarvey James Alter is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. 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. In 1988 the hepatitis virus was confirmed by Alter’s group by verifying its presence in their stored NANB specimens. In April 1989, the new hepatitis virus, renamed hepatitis C, was published in two articles in Science. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along with Michael Houghton and Charles M.

Rice. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service, and the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research. He has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Institute of Surgical Sciences. He also holds certification by the American Board of Pathology blood banking subspecialty and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He remains at the NIH as a chief of the infectious diseases section and associate director of research in the department of transfusion medicine.