Prof. Harald zur Hausen, world famous German virologist, visited Zhejiang University on Oct. 13th 2011. President Yang Wei; Associate Professor Li Min, Deputy Director of International Relations of Zhejiang University; Prof. Luo Jianhong, Executive Dean of School of Medicine; Prof. Chenzhi, Secretary of Party Committee; Prof. Xie Xing, Secretary of Party Committee of Women’s Hospital School of Medicine met with Prof. Hausen.
President Yang briefly introduced Prof. Hausen’s outstanding achievements in cervical cancer, and awarded him a formal letter of appointment.Prof. Hausen delivered a lecture entitled “Cervical Cancer: from etiology to prevention”, which won warmly welcome from teachers and students. After the appointment ceremony, Prof. Hausen exchanged opinions and talked about cooperation future with research team from Women’s Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University.
Harald zur Hausen is professor of virology at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and University of Heidelberg. He found HPV which can cause cervical cancer. His research defined the relationship between HPV virus and cervical cancer, and confirmed the new composition of HPV virus which facilitated people’s understanding of its impact on persistent infection. His discovery made cervical cancer have the most explicit cause of all kinds of cancers, which laid a cornerstone of cancer research. This finding also laid foundation for the birth of cervical cancer vaccine, so that cervical cancer became the first cancer humans can prevent and eradicate, and also capture other types of cancer to humans with reference in the future. In 2008, Prof. Hausen won Nobel Prize for his discovery of HPV causing cervical cancer.
