Harald zur Hausen

Harald zur Hausen (1936 to 2023) was a German virologist who studied oncoviruses, viruses that can cause cancer. He carried out research on cervical cancer and discovered the role of papilloma viruses in it, which earned him a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008. Working with Lutz Gissmann he isolated human papillomavirus 6 from genital warts, and in 1983 and 1984 he and his collaborators identified HPV 16 and HPV 18 in cervical cancers, the causes of roughly three quarters of cases. His work met scientific criticism when first published but was later confirmed, and it made possible the HPV vaccine, first commercialised in 2006. He chaired the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.