Stephen Mark Feinstone is a
virologist who, together with
Albert Kapikian and
Robert Purcell, co-identified the
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) in 1973.
He completed his undergraduate education at
Johns Hopkins University graduating in 1966, and completed his medical degree at the
University of Tennessee in 1969.
In 1971 he joined the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases where he co-identified the
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) in 1973. The same team developed the first
assay
An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity of a ...
s that could measure the virus antigen and antibody, and using those assays, the group along with
Harvey J. Alter
Harvey James Alter (born September 12, 1935) is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the i ...
demonstrated through the serologic exclusion of
Hepatitis A and
Hepatitis B that a third, previously unrecognised form of viral hepatitis existed, originally named non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH).
Michael Houghton's laboratory at
Chiron Corporation ultimately identified the agent associated with NANBH, now known as
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
, in 1989.
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Johns Hopkins University alumni
University of Tennessee alumni
American virologists
20th-century American scientists
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