Harald zur Hausen
Encyclopedia
Harald zur Hausen is a German
virologist
and professor emeritus. He has done research on cancer of the cervix, where he discovered the role of papilloma viruses, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
2008.
, Germany
, went to the Gymnasium in Vechta
, and studied medicine
at the Universities of Bonn
, Hamburg
and Düsseldorf and received a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1960 from the University of Düsseldorf, after which he became a medical assistant.
Two years later, he joined the Institute for Microbiology at the University of Düsseldorf as a laboratory assistant. After three and a half years, he moved to Philadelphia and worked at the Virus Laboratories of the Children's Hospital
together with the famous husband and wife virologists, Werner and Gertrude Henle http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/manuscripts/ead/henle.html, who had to escape from Nazi Germany. In a ground-breaking study, he contributed to finding for the first time that a cancer virus (Epstein-Barr virus) can transform healthy cells (lymphocytes) into cancer cells http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/157/3792/1064.pdf. This directly showed that viruses can cause cancer cell formation. He became an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania
. In 1969, he became a regular teaching and researching professor at the University of Würzburg
, where he worked at the Institute for Virology. In 1972, he moved to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1977, he moved on to the University of Freiburg
(Breisgau), where he headed the department of virology and hygiene. Working with Lutz Gissmann, zur Hausen first isolated human papillomavirus 6 by simple centrifugation from genital warts. Together with Ethel-Michelle de Villiers, who would later marry zur Hausen, this group isolated HPV 6 DNA from genital warts, suggesting a possible new way of identifying viruses in human tumors. This paid off several years later in 1983 when zur Hausen identified HPV 16 DNA in cervical cancer tumors by Southern blot
hybridization http://www.pnas.org/content/80/12/3812. This was followed by discovery of HPV18 a year later http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=557488&blobtype=pdf, thus identifying the culprits responsible for ~75% of human cervical cancer. This sparked a major scientific controversy with other scientists favoring herpes simplex as a cause for cervical cancer.
From 1983 until 2003 zur Hausen served as a chairman and member of the scientific advisory board of the German Cancer Research Center
(Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ in German) in Heidelberg
and professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg. He also is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cancer
. He is author of the book Infections Causing Human Cancer from 2006.
On January 1, 2010 zur Hausen became the president of the German Cancer Aid
, the leading organization fighting cancer in Europe
. It was founded by doctor Mildred Scheel
, the late “First Lady” of Germany.
es. In 1976, he published the hypothesis that human papillomavirus
plays an important role in the cause of cervical cancer
. Together with his collaborators, he then identified HPV16 and HPV18 in cervical cancers in 1983-4. This research directly made possible the development of a vaccine
which was introduced in 2006. See also HPV vaccine
. He is also credited with discovery of the virus causing genital warts (HPV 6) and a monkey lymphotropic polyomavirus that is a close relative to a recently discovered human Merkel cell polyomavirus
, as well as techniques to immortalize cells with Epstein-Barr virus and to induce replication of the virus using phorbol esters. His work on papillomaviruses and cervical cancer received a great deal of scientific criticism on initial unveiling but subsequently was confirmed and extended to other high-risk papillomaviruses.
He received the Gairdner Foundation International Award
in 2008 for his contributions to medical science. He also shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Luc Montagnier
and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
, who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus.
There was controversy over the 2008 award when it was learned that two senior figures in the process that chose zur Hausen, whose Nobel award had been in recognition of his discovery of the human papillomavirus (HPV), had a financial interest in vaccines for the cervical cancer it can cause.. This newspaper report has been regarded as meritless and there is little controversy among the general scientific community that zur Hausen's discoveries into the viral causes of human cancer warrant Nobel recognition.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
virologist
Virology
Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents: their structure, classification and evolution, their ways to infect and exploit cells for virus reproduction, the diseases they cause, the techniques to isolate and culture them, and their use in research and therapy...
and professor emeritus. He has done research on cancer of the cervix, where he discovered the role of papilloma viruses, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
2008.
Biography
Zur Hausen was born in GelsenkirchenGelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Ruhr area. Its population in 2006 was c. 267,000....
, Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, went to the Gymnasium in Vechta
Vechta
Vechta with a population of nearly 32,000 is the biggest city and also the capital of the Vechta district in Lower Saxony, Germany.It's well known all around Europe for the 'Stoppelmarkt' fair, which occurs every summer and has a history dating back to 1298....
, and studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at the Universities of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
, Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
and Düsseldorf and received a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1960 from the University of Düsseldorf, after which he became a medical assistant.
Two years later, he joined the Institute for Microbiology at the University of Düsseldorf as a laboratory assistant. After three and a half years, he moved to Philadelphia and worked at the Virus Laboratories of the Children's Hospital
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the largest and oldest children's hospitals in the world. CHOP has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and Parents Magazine in recent years. As of 2008, it was ranked #1 in the nation for...
together with the famous husband and wife virologists, Werner and Gertrude Henle http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/manuscripts/ead/henle.html, who had to escape from Nazi Germany. In a ground-breaking study, he contributed to finding for the first time that a cancer virus (Epstein-Barr virus) can transform healthy cells (lymphocytes) into cancer cells http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/157/3792/1064.pdf. This directly showed that viruses can cause cancer cell formation. He became an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. In 1969, he became a regular teaching and researching professor at the University of Würzburg
University of Würzburg
The University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the distinguished Coimbra Group.-Name:...
, where he worked at the Institute for Virology. In 1972, he moved to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1977, he moved on to the University of Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
(Breisgau), where he headed the department of virology and hygiene. Working with Lutz Gissmann, zur Hausen first isolated human papillomavirus 6 by simple centrifugation from genital warts. Together with Ethel-Michelle de Villiers, who would later marry zur Hausen, this group isolated HPV 6 DNA from genital warts, suggesting a possible new way of identifying viruses in human tumors. This paid off several years later in 1983 when zur Hausen identified HPV 16 DNA in cervical cancer tumors by Southern blot
Southern blot
A Southern blot is a method routinely used in molecular biology for detection of a specific DNA sequence in DNA samples. Southern blotting combines transfer of electrophoresis-separated DNA fragments to a filter membrane and subsequent fragment detection by probe hybridization. The method is named...
hybridization http://www.pnas.org/content/80/12/3812. This was followed by discovery of HPV18 a year later http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=557488&blobtype=pdf, thus identifying the culprits responsible for ~75% of human cervical cancer. This sparked a major scientific controversy with other scientists favoring herpes simplex as a cause for cervical cancer.
From 1983 until 2003 zur Hausen served as a chairman and member of the scientific advisory board of the German Cancer Research Center
German Cancer Research Center
The German Cancer Research Center , is a national cancer research center based in Heidelberg, Germany...
(Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ in German) in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
and professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg. He also is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cancer
International Journal of Cancer
International Journal of Cancer publishes articles about experimental and clinical cancer research. It publishes original research articles, mini reviews, short reports, and letters to the editor. The journal appears 24 times a year.-External links:* *...
. He is author of the book Infections Causing Human Cancer from 2006.
On January 1, 2010 zur Hausen became the president of the German Cancer Aid
German Cancer Aid
The German Cancer Aid is a not-for-profit organization to fight cancer in all its forms. The institution was founded on September 25, 1974 by Dr. Mildred Scheel . She was the wife of Walter Scheel, the Federal President of Germany from 1974 to 1979....
, the leading organization fighting cancer in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. It was founded by doctor Mildred Scheel
Mildred Scheel
Mildred Scheel was a German physician, the second wife of the German President of the Federal Republic Walter Scheel and the founder of the German Cancer Aid. As the First Lady , she immediately established this Non-profit organization to fight all kinds of cancer...
, the late “First Lady” of Germany.
Scientific merits
Zur Hausen's specific field of research is the study of oncovirusOncovirus
An oncovirus is a virus that can cause cancer. This term originated from studies of acutely-transforming retroviruses in the 1950–60s, often called oncornaviruses to denote their RNA virus origin. It now refers to any virus with a DNA or RNA genome causing cancer and is synonymous with "tumor...
es. In 1976, he published the hypothesis that human papillomavirus
Human papillomavirus
Human papillomavirus is a member of the papillomavirus family of viruses that is capable of infecting humans. Like all papillomaviruses, HPVs establish productive infections only in keratinocytes of the skin or mucous membranes...
plays an important role in the cause of cervical cancer
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
. Together with his collaborators, he then identified HPV16 and HPV18 in cervical cancers in 1983-4. This research directly made possible the development of a vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
which was introduced in 2006. See also HPV vaccine
HPV vaccine
The human papilloma virus vaccine prevents infection with certain species of human papillomavirus associated with the development of cervical cancer, genital warts, and some less common cancers...
. He is also credited with discovery of the virus causing genital warts (HPV 6) and a monkey lymphotropic polyomavirus that is a close relative to a recently discovered human Merkel cell polyomavirus
Merkel cell polyomavirus
Merkel cell polyomavirus was first described in January 2008. MCV is one of seven known human tumor viruses. It is suspected to cause the majority of cases of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare but aggressive form of skin cancer. Approximately 80% of Merkel cell carcinoma tumors have been found to be...
, as well as techniques to immortalize cells with Epstein-Barr virus and to induce replication of the virus using phorbol esters. His work on papillomaviruses and cervical cancer received a great deal of scientific criticism on initial unveiling but subsequently was confirmed and extended to other high-risk papillomaviruses.
He received the Gairdner Foundation International Award
Gairdner Foundation International Award
The Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; as of 2007, 69 Nobel...
in 2008 for his contributions to medical science. He also shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Luc Montagnier
Luc Montagnier
Luc Antoine Montagnier is a French virologist and joint recipient with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus...
and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist and director of the Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus as...
, who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus.
There was controversy over the 2008 award when it was learned that two senior figures in the process that chose zur Hausen, whose Nobel award had been in recognition of his discovery of the human papillomavirus (HPV), had a financial interest in vaccines for the cervical cancer it can cause.. This newspaper report has been regarded as meritless and there is little controversy among the general scientific community that zur Hausen's discoveries into the viral causes of human cancer warrant Nobel recognition.
Books
- Infections Causing Human Cancer (2006) (Print ISBN 9783527310562; Online ISBN 9783527609314)
Awards
- Robert Koch PrizeRobert Koch PrizeThe Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the cause and cure for tuberculosis...
(1975) - Charles S. Mott PrizeCharles S. Mott PrizeThe $250,000 Charles S. Mott Prize was awarded annually by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. The Mott Prize was one of a trio scientific prizes entirely devoted to cancer research . They were generally considered the most prestigious awards in cancer research...
(1986) - Paul-Ehrlich-und-Ludwig-Darmstaedter-Preis (1994)
- Virchow Medal from the University of WürzburgUniversity of WürzburgThe University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the distinguished Coimbra Group.-Name:...
(2000) - San Marino Prize for Medicine (2002)
- Great Cross of MeritBundesverdienstkreuzThe Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...
(2004) - German Cancer AidGerman Cancer AidThe German Cancer Aid is a not-for-profit organization to fight cancer in all its forms. The institution was founded on September 25, 1974 by Dr. Mildred Scheel . She was the wife of Walter Scheel, the Federal President of Germany from 1974 to 1979....
Award (2006) - William B. Coley AwardWilliam B. Coley AwardThe William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology is presented annually by the Cancer Research Institute, Inc., to scientists who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of basic and tumor immunology and whose work has deepened our understanding of the...
for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology in 2006 (with Ian FrazerIan FrazerProfessor Ian Frazer is the Director of the Diamantina Institute. He is a creator of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer; the second cancer preventing vaccine, and the first vaccine designed to prevent a cancer. .- Education:He was born in Glasgow, Scotland...
) - Gairdner Foundation International AwardGairdner Foundation International AwardThe Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; as of 2007, 69 Nobel...
(2008) - Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
(2008) - Honorary degrees of the universities of Chicago, Umeå, Prague, Salford, Helsinki, Erlangen-Nuremberg and Salerno