Nobel laureate Houghton launches hepatitis C vaccine programme at Baptist University, Hong Kong

Sir Michael Houghton, co-discoverer of the hepatitis C virus, began a vaccine development programme in Hong Kong, saying the US and Europe had cut science funding.

British virologist Sir Michael Houghton, who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the co-discovery of the hepatitis C virus, has launched a programme to develop the first hepatitis C vaccine, scmp.com reports. scmp.com He started it after joining Baptist University in Hong Kong.

Houghton said he moved after more than four decades in North America because the United States and Europe had cut science funding. He said his research grant from the National Institutes of Health was cut, and that economic problems linked to inflation mean less money goes to research in Europe.

The programme draws on Hong Kong's research funding, access to Chinese strains of the virus and partnerships with mainland drug makers. Houghton also leads the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta in Canada.