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By Professor Peter Revill, Royal Melbourne Hospital Senior Medical Scientist at the Doherty Institute and Chair of the International Coalition to Eliminate Hepatitis B Virus (ICE-HBV).

Dr Harvey Alter has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, together with Dr Michael Houghton and Dr Charlie Rice, for their co-discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). This is an amazing achievement by three outstanding virologists.  

Professor Harvey J Alter M.D. is a giant in the viral hepatitis field. In the 1960’s, he had previously co-discovered the “Australia Antigen”, now known to be the envelope protein of hepatitis B virus (HBV). For this achievement, he was awarded the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.  

In the 1970’s, Dr. Alter realised that some patients who had received blood transfusions still developed chronic hepatitis due to an unknown infectious agent. He was able to show that blood from these patients could transmit the disease to chimpanzees and that this new infectious agent had the characteristics of a virus. Subsequently, his work defined a new form of chronic viral hepatitis, which became known as “non-A, non-B” hepatitis and later identified as HCV.

These are outstanding contributions to the viral hepatitis field and have led to the savings of millions of lives through the subsequent development of preventative vaccines for HBV and antiviral treatments.  

Many of my colleagues at the Doherty Institute met Harvey at the International HBV meeting in October 2019, when he joined us as keynote speaker for the HBV Cure Symposium. Harvey gave the best talk on HBV and the discovery of the Australia antigen I have ever attended, delighting us with his wit, knowledge and charm throughout the meeting.  

We had previously invited Harvey to the Doherty Institute in 2015 for our World Hepatitis Day Symposium commemorating 50 years since the discovery of the “Australia Antigen”.  Unfortunately, a mix up by the airline and a huge storm in Washington conspired to stop Harvey from attending at the very last minute.

He was determined to visit us, however, and when Professor Stephen Locarnini and I invited him again in 2019 it became a reality. A major highlight of the Melbourne conference was a dinner to honour Harvey’s contribution to the HBV field, hosted by the University of Melbourne, at which he was joined by many of his colleagues and friends. Harvey had the audience in stitches when he regaled us with one of his famous poems. He was also delighted with the Akubra we presented to him at the conclusion of the meeting. The picture below shows Harvey proudly sporting his Aussie hat at the Hepdart meeting in Hawaii last December.

Please join with me in congratulating Professor Harvey Alter, together with Professors Houghton and Rice, on their awarding of the 2020 Nobel Prize.