The 2020 Nobel Prize Winner is Studying the New Coronavirus Vaccine to Promote Human Trials Early Next Year

At present, Horton is leading the team to develop the new coronavirus vaccine. They have received a grant of 750,000 CAD from the Canadian government for this purpose, and are applying for follow-up funding to promote the vaccine to enter human trials early next year.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was announced on October 5. Three scientists were honored for their decisive contributions to the discovery of Hepatitis-C virus. Michael Houghton, a virologist at the University of Alberta, Canada, is among them. The University of Alberta revealed that Houghton is currently leading the team to develop a new coronavirus vaccine.

Houghton was born in England. In 1989, Horton and colleagues who worked for a biopharmaceutical company in the United States discovered the Hepatitis-C virus. The main collaborators include two Chinese scholars: Singapore-born Qui-Lim Choo and Guo Jinhong (George Kuo) from Taiwan.

After the virus was discovered, new screening and detection techniques were also developed. By 1992, the Hepatitis-C virus was basically eliminated from the blood supply. By 1996, this screening reduced the number of new Hepatitis-C infections by more than 80% each year.

Houghton became a full-time professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta, School of Medicine and Dentistry in June 2010. His laboratory is located in the Li Ka-shing Institute of Virology at the University of Alberta. The Institute was jointly funded and established by the Li Ka-shing (Canada) Foundation and the Alberta Provincial Government in 2010. It is a world leader in the research of infectious diseases such as hepatitis, dengue fever, and H1N1 influenza virus. Houghton is currently the Director of the Institute of Applied Virology under the Li Ka-shing Institute of Virology.
In 2012, Horton developed a hepatitis C vaccine with his team at the University of Alberta, and it has now entered the pre-clinical stage of late testing. Antiviral therapy has also been developed and can cure 95% of Hepatitis-C virus carriers.

According to the University of Alberta, Houghton developed a vaccine against SARS in 2004. But because the SARS epidemic dissipated, this vaccine failed to come in handy.

At present, Houghton is leading the team to develop the new coronavirus vaccine. They have received 750,000 Canadian dollars in funding from the Canadian government for this purpose, and are applying for follow-up funding to promote the vaccine's entry into human trials early next year.

University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan said that the achievement of Houghton cannot be overemphasized, 'He made this world a better place'.

Also sharing the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Houghton are American scientists Harvey Alt and Charles Rice. 97 years ago, Canadian medical scientist Frederick Banting and his partners won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the first time in Canada for the discovery of insulin.
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