Qui-Lim Choo

Qui-Lim Choo
Born
Singapore
Alma materQueen Elizabeth College
King's College London (PhD)
Known forHepatitis C
Hepatitis D
AwardsKarl Landsteiner Memorial Award (1992)
William Beaumont Prize (1994)
Dale A. Smith Memorial Award (2005)
Scientific career
FieldsVirology
InstitutionsChiron Corporation
ThesisNeuronal proteins examined by a two-dimensional gel system (1980)

Qui-Lim Choo is a Singapore-born scientist, who along with Michael Houghton, George Kuo and Daniel W. Bradley, co-discovered and cloned Hepatitis C in 1989.[1][2] He also co-discovered the Hepatitis D genome in 1986.[3] The discovery of Hepatitis C led to the rapid development of diagnostic reagents to detect Hepatitis C virus in blood supplies which has reduced the risk of acquiring hepatitis C through blood transfusion from one in three to about one in two million.[4][5] It is estimated that antibody testing has prevented at least 40,000 new infections per year in the US alone and many more worldwide.[6]

  1. ^ "Singapore-born scientist pioneers test". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  2. ^ Choo QL, Kuo G, Weiner AJ, Overby LR, Bradley DW, Houghton M (April 1989). "Isolation of a cDNA clone derived from a blood-borne non-A, non-B viral hepatitis genome". Science. 244 (4902): 359–62. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.469.3592. doi:10.1126/science.2523562. PMID 2523562.
  3. ^ Wang, KS; Choo, QL; Weiner, AJ; Ou, JH; Najarian, RC; Thayer, RM; Mullenbach, GT; Denniston, KJ; Gerin, JL; Houghton, M (9 October 1986). "Structure, sequence and expression of the hepatitis delta (delta) viral genome". Nature. 323 (6088): 508–14. doi:10.1038/323508a0. PMID 3762705. S2CID 4265339.
  4. ^ "Opinion: Nobel-worthy discovery right in our backyard". Canadian for Health Research. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  5. ^ "Science world abuzz as virologist turns down Gairdner award". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  6. ^ Thompson, Gilbert (2014). Pioneers of Medicine Without a Nobel Prize. p. 209. ISBN 9781783263868.