Harald zur Hausen

Harald zur Hausen (1936-2023) proposed in 1976 that human papillomaviruses, then known for warts, were the cause of cervical cancer, when most researchers favoured herpes simplex virus. Working in Freiburg and then in Heidelberg, his group isolated HPV16 from cervical cancer biopsies in 1983 and HPV18, present in the HeLa cell line, in 1984, and showed that these types account for around 70 percent of cervical cancers worldwide. Vaccine companies initially declined his approach to develop a vaccine. From 1983 to 2003 he was scientific director of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). His discovery led directly to the HPV vaccines licensed from 2006, to HPV DNA testing replacing cytology in screening programmes, and to the World Health Organization's 2020 strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008.