News : Nobel Medicine Prize goes to Germany & France

German scientist Harald zur Hausen of the University of Duesseldorf shares the 2008 Nobel Medicine Prize with two French scientists

Nobel Medicine Prize goes to Germany & France

October 06, 2008

This year's Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded to one German and two French scientists, for their discoveries of two viruses causing severe human diseases. The Nobel jury said in Stockholm that Harald zur Hausen of Germany won the prize for his discovery of viruses causing cervical cancer. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France received the award for their discovery of the virus that causes AIDS.

Harald zur Hausen of the University of Duesseldorf is Professor emeritus and former Chairman and Scientific Director of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, Germany. He went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. Cervical cancer kills 230,000 women a year, eight out of ten of them in developing countries, where it is the most common cancer in women.

The global public health burden attributable to human papilloma viruses is considerable. More than 5% of all cancers worldwide are caused by persistent infection with this virus. Harald zur Hausen demonstrated novel properties of HPV that have led to an understanding of mechanisms of the disease. His discovery helped to develop vaccines that could provide over 95% protection from infection by the high risk HPV16 and 18 types. The vaccines may also reduce the need for surgery and the global burden of cervical cancer.

The Nobel Prize – which Hausen shares with two French AIDS researchers, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier – is the crowning success in his career. There is hardly a top science prize that Hausen has not won. From the Robert-Koch prize to the Raymond Bourgine Award and Paul-Ehrlich Prize, the list of his awards and his corresponding achievements is long.

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobel Prizes awarded each year. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.

In 1901, German scientist Emil von Behring was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on serum therapy, particularly for its use in the treatment of diphtheria. The Nobel Prize in Medicine has subsequently highlighted a number of important discoveries including penicillin, genetic engineering and blood-typing.

Germany has produced 80 Nobel Prize winners to date, out of which 68 have won the prize for services to natural sciences or medicine. Peter Grünberg (Physics) and Gerhard Ertl (Chemistry) were recent German winners of the Nobel Prize in 2007.