Dr. Harald zur Hausen was born on
11th March, 1936, in the city of
Gelsenkirchen-Buer, Germany.
After finishing his school in 1955, he
opted for medicine and graduated in 1960
from University of Bonn where he
completed his MD.
Subsequently he developed a
fascination for experimental studies and
worked on virus-induced chromosomal
modifications.
In 1966 he went to Philadelphia to
work in the Henle's Laboratory on EBV and
adenovirus type-12.
In 1969 he returned back to Germany
and worked in the Institute of Virology at
the University of Wurzburg, where he
demonstrated EBV DNA in Burkitt's
Lymphoma and Nasopharyngeal Cancer.
In 1972 he was appointed chairman
of the newly established Institute of Clinical
Virology in Erlangen-Nürnberg and
changed his research field to cervical
cancer.
In 1976 he published the hypothesis
that human papilloma virus plays an
important role in the cause of cervical
cancer.
In 1977 he was appointed as chairman
of the Institute of Virology of the
University of Freiburg, Germany, where he
continued studies on human papilloma
viruses.
Late in 1979 his co-workers Lutz
Gissmann and Ethel-Michele de Villiers
successfully isolated and cloned the first
DNA from genital warts, HPV-6. In 1983
they were able to document the isolation
of HPV-16 and in 1984 the isolation of HPV-
18 DNA. This research directly made
possible the development of a vaccine
which was introduced in 2006.
In 1983 he was appointed as the
Scientific Director of the German Cancer
Research Centre (Deutsches
Krebsforschungszentrum) in Heidelberg, a
national research centre.
In 2003, after 20 years, he retired
from the scientific directorship of the
German Cancer Research Centre.
Subsequently, he kept a laboratory in the
virus building of the Cancer Centre and
continues up to now to act as Editor-in-
Chief of the International Journal of Cancer.
The early hypothesis that cervical
cancer was caused by papilloma viruses,
the successful isolation and
characterisation of the two most frequent
HPV types in this cancer and the
subsequent steps leading to a better
understanding of the mechanism of HPVmediated
carcinogenesis and eventually to
the development of a preventive vaccine
were cited as the prime reasons for
awarding one half of the Nobel Prize for
Medicine or Physiology to him in 2008.
(From Nobel website, 2009 & Wikipedia, 05.03.2013)
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