Harald zur Hausen
Award-winning virologist Harald zur Hausen, DSc, MD, who has devoted his career to investigating the links between viral infections and the development of specific types of cancer, will give a lecture, titled “Infectious Causes of Human Cancers,” when he visits UCSF on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center invites the campus community to hear zur Hausen, who will deliver the Maurice, Ethel and Jane Sokolow Memorial Cancer Endowment Lecture on Sept. 10 at 4 p.m. in Cole Hall on the Parnassus campus.
A professor emeritus at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, zur Hausen is credited with a scientific breakthrough in 1970, when he detected the Epstein-Barr virus in tissue samples of two human tumors, Burkitt’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Since the 1970s, zur Hausen has focused on human papillomavirus (HPV). His research team made a series of key observations that linked HPV to cervical cancer.
This discovery paved the way for novel prevention measures, including the development of a successful HPV vaccine. Some 80 percent of cervical cancer occurs in the developing world, where in many countries it accounts for even more deaths, and at an earlier age, than breast cancer. Zur Hausen’s work also has linked HPV to several other cancers, including laryngeal carcinoma, penile carcinoma and epidermal dysplasia.
Zur Hausen has received numerous honors and awards for his contributions to medicine. In March, he received the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of his life’s work, which has been devoted to the study of viruses and cancer.
“Dr. zur Hausen is responsible for a body of scientific research that laid the foundation for one of the most important events of the past year in cancer research and public health – the approval of an effective vaccine for HPV,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, AACR chief executive officer. “We expect this vaccine will lead to a marked decrease in the incidence of cervical cancer and ultimately protect countless young women from this disease.”
The UCSF lectureship was named after cardiologist Maurice Sokolow, MD, a respected researcher, teacher and longtime member of the campus community from 1936 to 2002.
Sokolow was a pioneer of modern clinical treatment of hypertension. During the 1950s, he was head of the hypertension section at San Francisco General Hospital. Sokolow later went on to be a founding member of the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute.
Born in New York, Sokolow moved to California as a young child with his family. He attended UCLA and UC Berkeley, and then worked his way through medical school at UCSF. Upon receiving his medical degree in 1936 from the UCSF School of Medicine, he was recognized with the Gold-Headed Cane, an honor awarded to the top graduating medical student.
