Michael Houghton

University of Alberta

Sir Michael Houghton is a British-born virologist who holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology and directs the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta. Working at Chiron Corporation in the late 1980s, Houghton with colleagues Qui-Lim Choo and George Kuo, together with Daniel W. Bradley of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cloned the genome of the agent behind post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis, identifying the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989 from a blood-borne cDNA clone. He had earlier co-discovered the hepatitis D genome in 1986. For the discovery of hepatitis C virus he shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice. The HCV discovery enabled blood-screening diagnostics and antiviral drug development that have since made hepatitis C a curable disease, and the underlying Chiron patents became a foundation of the molecular-diagnostics industry. Houghton continues to pursue a recombinant HCV vaccine and broader applied-virology programs, making his institute a relevant counterpart for vendors of viral cloning, serology, vaccine-development and infectious-disease research reagents.