Harvey J. Alter

Harvey J. Alter, chief of the infectious disease section in the department of transfusion medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was awarded the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for his work leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C. Alter and his co-awardee Michael Houghton were recognized for the development of blood screening methods that essentially eliminated the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis in the U.S. Alter has received numerous honors for his medical research including the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service.

Education and career
Alter attended the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, and earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1956. In 1960, Alter obtained a medical degree from University of Rochester. Alters's post graduate training includes a rotation as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland from 12/61-6/64; a year of residency in medicine at University of Washington Hospital System, Seattle, Washington from 7/64-6/65; and work as a hematology fellow at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC from 7/65-6/66.

Alter has a medical license issued by the District of Columbia. Additionally he holds certification by the American Board of Pathology-Subspecialty Blood Banking and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians/American Society Internal Medicine. Clinical appointments include: director, hematology research at Georgetown University Hospital from 7/66-6/69; senior investigator in the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the NIH from 7/69-present; chief of infectious diseases section at the department of transfusion medicine in the Clinical Center NIH from 12/72-present; associate director for research at the department of transfusion medicine at the Clinical Center at NIH from 1/87-present.

Alter's academic appointments include: clinical associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University Hospital; Adjunct Professor at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, TX; clinical professor of medicine at Georgetown University Hospital; and a faculty position at Clinical Research Training Program at the NIH.

Discovery of hepatitis C
In the mid 1970’s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A and hepatitis B viruses. Alter, in collaboration with Bob Purcell and Stephen Feinstone, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called “non-A, non-B hepatitis” caused the infections. This work eventually lead to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. In 1988 the new hepatitis virus was confirmed by Alter's group by verifying its presence in their stored panel of NANBH specimens. In April of 1989, the discovery of the non-A, non-B virus, re-named hepatitis C virus, was published in two articles in Science.

Honors and award
Alter has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. In 2005, he received the American College of Physicians Award for Outstanding Work in Science as Related to Medicine.

Speaking of Alter's long research career at the time of the 2000 Lasker Award, Dr. Harvey Klein, chief of the Clinical Center Transfusion Medicine Department noted, "As a young research fellow, Dr. Alter co-discovered the Australia antigen, a key to detecting hepatitis B virus. For many investigators that would be the highlight of a career. For Dr. Alter it was only an auspicious beginning."