Nobel Prize Winner Harald zur Hausen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nobel Prize Winner Harald zur Hausen - Essay Example In 1969, he became a regular teaching and researching professor at the University of Wurzburg, and worked at the Institute for Virology. In 1972, he joined the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1977, he moved on to the University of Freiburg as the head of the department of virology and hygiene. (nobelprize.org) Harald zur Hausen has been honored with Nobel Prize for discovering HPV vaccine. The specific field of Harald Zur Hausen of research is the erudition of oncoviruses. In 1976, he published the hypothesis that human papilloma virus plays a significant role in the cause of cervical cancer. Mutually with his coworkers, he identified HPV16 and HPV18 in cervical cancers in 1983-4. This research directly made possible the development of a vaccine which was launched in 2006. He is also attributed with discovery of the virus causing genital warts (HPV 6) and a monkey lymphotropic polyomavirus that is a close relative to a newly discovered human Merkel cell polyomavirus, as well as methods to immortalize cells with Epstein-Barr virus and to persuade replication of the virus using phorbol esters. His work on papillomaviruses and cervical cancer received an immense deal of scientific censure on initial presentation but afterward was confirmed and extended to other high-risk papilloma viruses. ( The Gairdner Foundation) He made HPV16 and HPV18 available to the scientific society.