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Alter, Harvey J. (1935-)

Harvey Alter, M.D., is an NIH virologist best known for his work that led to the discovery of hepatitis B and C. For his work on hepatitis C, he was awarded the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research and the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Alter came to the NIH in 1961 as a Clinical Associate. He left in 1964 to pursue residency and fellowship opportunities but returned to the NIH 1969 as in investigator in the Clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine. He then became Chief of the Clinical Studies Section and, in 1987, Associate Director of Research in the Department of Transfusion Medicine.

Alter dedicated his career to studies intended to ensure the safety of blood transfusions. In 1963, with Baruch Blumberg, he co-discovered the Australia antigen, the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which led to isolating HBV and ultimately creating a vaccine to prevent infection. In the 1970s, while analyzing blood from NIH patients and blood donors, Alter discovered what he then called "non-A, non-B hepatitis." This work led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus by 1988, as well as screening tests that almost eliminated the risk of contracting hepatitis via a blood transfusion.

Alter also worked on a DNA approach to vaccines later in his career.

Institutes

NIH Clinical Center

CC - Opened: 1953

Oral Histories

Alter, Harvey 1998
Alter, Harvey 2002

Journal articles

Reflections on the History of HCV: A Posthumous Examination

Clinical Liver Disease, 15, 564 (2020).

The road not taken or how I learned to love the liver: A personal perspective on hepatitis history.

Hepatology, 59, 4 (2014)

Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors (retracted)

PNAS 2010 107, 15874 Retraction: PNAS 2012 Jan 3;109(1):346.

Detection of antibody to hepatitis C virus in prospectively followed transfusion recipients with acute and chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis. N Engl J Med., 321(22):1494-500 (1989).

N Engl J Med., 321(22):1494-500 (1989).

Posttransfusion hepatitis after exclusion of commercial and hepatitis-B antigen-positive donors. Alter HJ, Holland PV, Purcell RH, Lander JJ, Feinstone SM, Morrow AG, Schmidt PJ.

Ann Intern Med.;77(5):691-9 (1972).

A "New" Antigen in Leukemia

JAMA.; 191:541-6 (1965).