Gee, just when I thought this was an open ended musing on the past and I was about to jump in with saying whoa, what about the major contribution by German physician-scientist, Dr. Harald zur Hausen, 72, for his discovery of HPV, or the human papilloma virus causing cervical cancer,which won him the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine. According to the New York Times: [quote]In 1983, Zur Hausen discovered the first HPV, type 16, among biopsies of women who had cervical cancer. He went on to show that more than one HPV type could lead to cervical cancer, in part by cloning HPV 16 and another type, 18. Further research has shown that the two HPV types are consistently found in about 70 percent of cervical cancer biopsies throughout the world,[/quote]
All the newsreports used the Nobel Prize phrase that Zur Hausen, went against the "current dogma of the medical establishment" . [quote]His discovery has led to characterization of the natural history of HPV infection, an understanding of mechanisms of HPV-induced carcinogenesis and the development of prophylactic vaccines against HPV acquisition.[/quote] Note that it took 25 years before this doctor got his appropriate recognition. So mark your calendars for around 2033 to see when Dr. Gillison's and OCF's contributions are belatedly acknowledged.
charm