Rockefeller virologist Charles M. Rice honored with Nobel Prize for research that contributed to a cure for hepatitis C
PR85944
NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
Charles M. Rice (
), who studies disease-causing viruses and how the immune system defends
against them, is this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine, the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, announced today. Rice is
the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology and Head of the
Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease. He shares the prize with Harvey
J. Alter of the National Institutes of Health and Michael Houghton of the
University of Alberta.
Rice's research directly contributed to a cure for hepatitis C, an aggressive
disease that affects 170 million people worldwide. His lab worked on the virus
for three decades and became the first to produce a version of it that could be
cultured and studied in the laboratory. This milestone--which involved
developing an edited version of the viral genome that replicates and produces
viral proteins--led directly to the creation of three new classes of drugs to
treat hepatitis C infection. Studies have shown that a combination of these
drugs is able to reduce hepatitis C viral load to undetectable levels,
effectively curing the disease.
"A chronic infection that has taken many lives, hepatitis C is now curable.
Over time, this medical advance will save millions of lives and improve many
more, and it is a direct result of Charlie's research," says Richard P. Lifton
(
), The Rockefeller University's president. "His work on viruses, including the
signature achievement of growing hepatitis C in the lab, perfectly embodies
this university's mission: science for the benefit of humanity. I am thrilled
that he has been selected for the Nobel Prize, the highest honor in science."
Alter and Houghton originally cloned the genome of the hepatitis C virus in
1989, a major advance that enabled identification of people infected with the
virus and elimination of the virus from the blood supply. However, for years
efforts to propagate the virus in liver cells in the lab--crucial to further
study and the development of medicine--failed. Rice demonstrated that the
reason was that the end of the viral genome, required for the initiation of
viral replication, was missing. He completed the characterization of the viral
genome in 1996 and a year later was successful in producing an infectious virus
in the lab.
He went on to develop sub-genomic amplicons of the virus that could replicate
in cells without producing live virus, which made it possible to design assays
to test for drugs capable of directly inhibiting viral replication. By 2013 the
first in a series of such drugs, developed with the help of Rice's technology,
received FDA approval for use in patients. Several are now available, and in
combination they can cure the vast majority of people with hepatitis C after a
short course of treatment with virtually no toxicity.
In addition, Rice's group has developed methods to test factors that limit
infection in hepatitis C, hepatitis B, influenza A, dengue, yellow fever, Zika,
chikungunya, and coronavirus. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rice has
used CRISPR technology to identify novel therapeutic targets (
) for SARS-CoV-2, and translated techniques developed in his hepatitis C work
to screen drugs for the ability to inhibit the coronavirus (
)--work which is currently ongoing.
Rice is the 26th scientist associated with Rockefeller University to be honored
with the Nobel Prize. In addition to Rice, four other Nobel Prize winners are
current members of the Rockefeller faculty: Michael W. Young (2017), Roderick
MacKinnon (2003), Paul Nurse (2001), and Torsten Wiesel (1981).
Born in Sacramento, CA, in 1952, Rice received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in
1981 from the California Institute of Technology, where he stayed on as a
postdoctoral research fellow from 1981 to 1985. Before he joined Rockefeller in
2001, he spent 14 years on the faculty of the Washington University School of
Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a previous
recipient of the 2007 M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize, the 2015 Robert Koch
Award, the 2016 InBev-Baillet Latour Health Prize, and the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey
Clinical Medical Research Award.
About The Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is the world's leading biomedical research
university and is dedicated to conducting innovative, high-quality research to
improve the understanding of life for the benefit of humanity. The university's
unique approach to science has led to some of the world's most revolutionary
and transformative contributions to biology and medicine. During Rockefeller's
119-year history, our scientists have won 26 Nobel Prizes, 23 Albert Lasker
Medical Research Awards, and 20 National Medals of Science.
Media contact
Katherine Fenz, Media Relations Manager
kfenz@rockefeller.edu
SOURCE: The Rockefeller University
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