U.S. Scientists Honored For Lifetime Contributions In Hepatiti...( Robert H. Purcell M....)

Robert H. Purcell, M.D., head of the hepatitis viruses section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., received the 1998 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine in a special ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 14. Dr. Purcell shares the prize with John L. Gerin, Ph.D., director of the molecular virology and immunology division at Georgetown University Medical Center, Rockville, Md., who has received NIAID support for many years.

The two scientists, working in close collaboration, have devoted much of their research careers to the discovery, identification and characterization of various hepatitis viruses, and to development of diagnostic tests, treatments and preventive measures for hepatitis. They were key in the development of the hepatitis A vaccine that is in use worldwide and have also developed a hepatitis E vaccine that is now in preclinical studies.

Drs. Purcell and Gerin continue to collaborate on studies of mutual interest: testing a candidate hepatitis B vaccine in China; discovery of a new strain of hepatitis D virus in the jungles of Brazil; and studies on the epidemiology of hepatitis E virus in Pakistan.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID, said of Drs. Purcell and Gerin, "Their work is a classic model of dedication to fighting disease across the spectrum -- from the laboratory bench to the
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Contact: Cheryl Parrott
cparrott@nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
17-Feb-1998