Harald zur Hausen

Harald zur Hausen
Born	March 12, 1936 (1936-03-12) Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Nationality	German
Fields	Virology
Institutions	German Cancer Research Center University of Heidelberg
Known for	Discovery that HPV can cause cervical cancer
Notable awards	2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Harald zur Hausen (born March 11, 1936 in Gelsenkirchen, Province of Westphalia) 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.

Biography

Zur Hausen was born in Gelsenkirchen, 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 [1], 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 [2]. 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 [3]. This was followed by discovery of HPV18 a year later [4], 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.

Scientific merits

Zur Hausen's specific field of research is the study of oncoviruses. 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.

Books

• Infections Causing Human Cancer (2006) (Print ISBN 9783527310562; Online ISBN 9783527609314)

Awards

• Robert Koch Prize (1975)
• Charles S. Mott Prize (1986)
• Paul-Ehrlich-und-Ludwig-Darmstaedter-Preis (1994)
• Virchow Medal from the University of Würzburg (2000)
• San Marino Prize for Medicine (2002)
• Great Cross of Merit (2004)
• German Cancer Aid Award (2006)
• William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology in 2006 (with Ian Frazer)
• Gairdner Foundation International Award (2008)
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2008)
• Honorary degrees of the universities of Chicago, Umeå, Prague, Salford, Helsinki, Erlangen-Nuremberg and Salerno

External links

• Zur Hausen Nobel Prize lecture
• Hausen: CV, Interviews, Publications
• zur Hausen, Harald at ISIHighlyCited.com