Identification of the Hepatitis A virus.

The first paper recording the discovery of what was, eleven years later in 1989, named the hepatitis C virus (see No. 12653). Harvey Alter and colleagues inoculated the serum/plasma of 4 patients with non-A/non-B hepatitis into 5 chimps, and the chimps showed both biochemical and histological evidence of a typical hepatitis. The experiment was performed with a negative control. Order of authorship in the original paper: Alter, Purcell, Holland....

In 2020 Alter shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)