Michael Houghton (scientist)

Michael Houghton is a British biochemist, known for its involvement in the development of a hepatitis C test.

Houghton studied biology at the University of East Anglia (Bachelor 1972) and in 1977 received his doctorate at King's College London. Then he was at the Searle Research Laboratories in Buckinghamshire, before becoming head of the non-A, non-B hepatitis Division at Chiron Corporation in 1982.

After Daniel W. Bradley from CDC in the early 1980s the hepatitis C virus ( then called non A, non B) isolated ( from chimpanzee serum) could Houghton clone him (in collaboration with Bradley) at Chiron in parts and develop a test that came in the early 1990s for use and testing of blood supplies to the liver cirrhosis and liver cancer -producing agents allowed.

His team at Chiron included Qui -Lim Choo (Senior Scientist at Chiron) and George C. Kuo (head of the immune chemistry at Chiron ).

In 1993 he was awarded the Robert Koch Prize with Bradley and Hans -Georg Rammensee. In 1992 he was awarded with Choo, Kuo and the other Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award from the American Association of Blood Banks ( AABB ). He also received the 1994 William Beaumont Prize from the American Gastroenterological Association. For 2013, the Canada Gairdner International Award, one was awarded, but he declined because his colleagues Choo and Kuo were not also excellent.