Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Winners Announced

The American Physiological Society congratulates this year’s winners

Rockville, Md. (October 5, 2020)—The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, MD, of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.; Michael Houghton, PhD, from the University of Alberta in Canada; and Charles M. Rice, PhD, of The Rockefeller University in New York City, for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus. They will share more than $1.1 million in prize money. While announcing the winners Monday from Stockholm, Sweden, the Nobel Assembly said their work “made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates nearly 2.4 million people in the U.S. are infected with hepatitis C, fueled in part by the opioid crisis.

“Prior to their work, the discovery of the hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained. The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives,” the Nobel Prize committee said in a statement. “For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population.”

“This Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine highlights the critical role physiology plays in our understanding of life and health,” said APS chief science officer Dennis Brown, PhD, FAPS. “The work being honored by Alter, Houghton and Rice demonstrates the foundational nature of physiology in order to inform advances in health care and disease prevention.”

Congratulations to the 2020 winners.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Many past Nobel Laureates have been APS members or authored papers in APS journals. You can find the full list at Physiology.org. For more information, please contact the APS Communications Office or call 301.634.7314. Find more research highlights in our Newsroom.

Physiology is a broad area of scientific inquiry that focuses on how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. The American Physiological Society connects a global, multidisciplinary community of more than 10,000 biomedical scientists and educators as part of its mission to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. The Society drives collaboration and spotlights scientific discoveries through its 16 scholarly journals and programming that support researchers and educators in their work.