Harvey J. Alter

Biography

Resources

• Alter, Harvey 1998 Oral History Page, PDF
• Alter, Harvey 2002 Oral History Page, PDF

Harvey J. Alter

Research physician Harvey Alter dedicated his career to studies intended to ensure the safety of blood transfusions. In his research on viral hepatitis he co-discovered the so-called Australia antigen which proved to be the key to detecting the hepatitis B virus. He was the key scientist on the research that led to the discovery of hepatitis C in 1969. These findings provided to be means to reducing the incidence of blood transfusion caused hepatitis to near zero. More recently he was working on a DNA approach to vaccines. Alter came to the NIH in 1961 as a clinical associate. He then spent three years with the Georgetown University Hospital. In 1969 he came back to NIH as a Senior Investigator in the clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine. He then became Chief of the Clinical Studies and in 1987, Associate Director of Research in the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the NIH Clinical Center. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Nobel Prize (2020).

Non Journal Sources:

NIH Intramural Research Program Website

https://irp.nih.gov/pi/harvey-alter

National Academy of Sciences Member Directory

http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/20002179.html

Wikipedia, Harvey Alter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_J._Alter

Journal Sources:

Reflections on the History of HCV: A Posthumous Examination, Harvey J. Alter. ,Patrizia Farci,

Jens Bukh, Robert H. Purcell, Clinical Liver Disease, 15, 564(2020).

https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cld.882

The road not taken or how I learned to love the liver: A personal perspective on hepatitis history. Harvey J. Alter, Hepatoogy, 59, 4(2014)

https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hep.26787

Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors, Shyh-Ching Lo, Natalia Pripuzova, Bingjie Li, Anthony L. Komaroff, Guo-Chiuan Hung, Richard Wang, and Harvey J. Alter, PNAS, 107, 15874(2010).

https://www.pnas.org/content/107/36/15874.abstract