NIH Researcher’s Pioneering Work Led to Discovery of Hepatitis C
Monday, January 11, 2021
NIH’s Dr. Harvey Alter won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his life-saving discoveries about hepatitis C.
When the phone rang at 4:15 in the morning, IRP senior scientist Harvey J. Alter, M.D., was annoyed. He didn’t answer it. After the third try, he reluctantly got out of bed and took his phone out to the hallway.
“Before I could yell at the person, he said, ‘This is Stockholm calling,’” Dr. Alter recalls. “And then I got stopped in my tracks. Then the moment of disbelief and awe comes over you.”