Alex Palazzo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Toronto.
Well I was slightly off in my prediction (but not too far):
If you wanted a discovery that dramatically changed life, how about anti-HIV drugs? (I'm not clear on the history here, you'll have to tell me who are responsible or if this is feasible). Of course this prize will raise the issue of the pharmas vs. providers of generic drugs ...
Instead the Nobel prize selection committee did one better and gave the prize for the basic (and controversial) discovery of the HIV virus by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier. The discovery of the Papilloma virus by Harald zur Hausen was also important as it was one of the few viruses linked to cancer (in this case cervical cancer).
The awards are well deserved. If I have time today I'll try to write more on these topics.
Medicine & Health
Life Science
Comments
For some reason, I thought they had already won the Nobel for the discovery of HIV. It seems so obvious that they would have, I'm a bit surprised it took this long. I'm glad the HPV discovery was included as well.
Posted by: Betsy | October 6, 2008 4:00 PM
There was a dispute as to who actually discovered the virus. I think that the Nobel committee were waiting for the dust to settle.
Posted by: Alex Palazzo | October 6, 2008 4:39 PM
You missed medicine, but have been spot on with chemistry!
Posted by: MadGenius | October 8, 2008 6:08 AM