Anthony Epstein

Sir Michael Anthony Epstein (1921 to 2024) was a British pathologist and academic who helped discover the first virus known to cause cancer in humans. Born in London, he was educated at St Paul's School, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and later became Professor of Pathology at the University of Bristol, serving as head of department from 1968 to 1982. After hearing the surgeon Denis Burkitt lecture in 1961 on a newly described cancer, he turned from studying tumour viruses in chickens to searching for a viral origin of Burkitt lymphoma. In 1963 a delayed flight carrying tumour samples from Uganda led to the first suspension cell culture of the lymphoma cells, and in 1964 Epstein and his assistant Bert Achong found viral particles in those cells by electron microscopy, work published with Yvonne Barr. The result was the Epstein-Barr virus, the first demonstration of virus particles in a human tumour. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979, received its Royal Medal in 1992, was knighted in 1991, and died in London in February 2024 aged 102.