October 6, 2008

scientists comment on the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

This year’s prize was awarded to Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of the human papilloma virus, and to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for their discovery of HIV.

Dr Jenny Best, Emeritus Reader in Virology, King’s College London, said:

“I am delighted to hear that Harold zur Hausen has won part of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. He was the first person to investigate the possible association of human papillomaviruses with cervical cancer. This meant developing new techniques to study these viruses, as they could not be grown in cell cultures. This early work in the 1970s lead to much exciting work on these viruses in many laboratories. Now we have HPV vaccines to prevent infection which may lead to cervical cancer. We also have laboratory tests for these viruses, which can be used with cervical cytology to identify cervical abnormalities.”

Dr Adriano Boasso, Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College and Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow, said:

“Two seminal discoveries for both the fields of virology and immunology, yet medical research on these two viruses appears to have followed two different fates. Isolating the causing agent of an infectious disease is the single most important step toward developing a vaccine. The availability of a vaccine against HPV is now a reality thanks to the original discovery of the virus by Harald zur Hausen. HIV vaccine research has instead recently suffered the failure of promising clinical trials, but there is no doubt that the discovery of HIV by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier will be the pillar on which an efficient vaccine will eventually be built.”

Dr Nicholas Kitchin, UK Medical Director Sanofi Pasteur MSD, said:

“Prof zur Hausen’s work linking human papillomavirus (HPV) with cervical cancer in women has had a great impact on our understanding of the virus and the disease it causes.

“His discoveries have allowed others to innovate, specifically in the development of the HPV virus-like particle contained in HPV vaccines. HPV vaccination is increasingly recognised as an important public health tool in tandem with cervical screening, used to prevent cervical cancer across Europe and the rest of the world.”