1896 BECQUEREL, Antoine Henri (1852 – 1908)

Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence.

The discovery of radioactivity – research stimulated by Roentgen’s discovery of x rays. In 1903 Becquerel received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered …

GMN 2001 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/4181

1898 CURIE, Pierre (1859 – 1906); CURIE, Marie Sklodowska (1867 – 1934)

Sur une substance nouvelle radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende.

The Curies, studying the radioactivity of minerals containing uranium and thorium, isolated from pitchblend a substance which they called radium and which they showed to possess an astonishing degree of radioactivity.…

GMN 2003 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/1914

1910 ROUS, Francis Peyton (1879 – 1970)

A transmissible avian neoplasm (sarcoma of the common fowl).

Original description of the chicken sarcoma (Rous sarcoma). Rous demonstrated that sarcomatous tumors in hens could be transmitted to normal hens by the injection of cell-free filtrates (virus) of the original tumor. …

GMN 2637 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3238

1913 FIBIGER, Johannes (1867 – 1928)

Untersuchungen über eine Nematode (Spiroptera sp. n.) und deren Fähigkeit papillomatöse und carcinomatose Geschwulstbildungen im Magen der Ratte hervorzurufen.

Fibiger demonstrated that the roundworm, which he called Spiroptera carcinoma (but is correctly named Gongylonema neoplasticum), could cause stomach cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) in rats and mice. His experimental …

GMN 2640 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3257

1941 HUGGINS, Charles Brenton (1901 – 1997); HODGES, Clarence Vernard (1914 – 2001)

Studies on prostatic cancer. I. The effect of castration, of estrogen, and of androgen injection on serum phosphatases in metastatic carcinoma of the prostate.

In 1966 Huggins was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering in 1941 "for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer."

GMN 4276 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/5291

1945 MCMILLAN, Edwin Mattison (1907 – 1991)

The synchrotron: a proposed high energy particle accelerator.

In 1951 McMillan shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Theodore Seaborg "for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements."

GMN 2659.4 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3358

1946 ALVAREZ, Luis Walter (1911 – 1988)

The design of a proton linear accelerator.

Linear ion accelerator. In 1968 Alvarez received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possi…

GMN 2659.5 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3361

1957 THOMAS, Edward Donnall (1920 – 2012); LOCHTE, Harry L. Jr.; LU, Wan Ching; ET AL

Intravenous infusion of bone marrow in patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy.

Thomas and colleagues reported the first bone marrow transplants. They described the treatment of six patients with cancers and/leukemia and one patient with multiple myeloma. Three of the patients died, two responded…

GMN 13594 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/15873

1967 HENLE, Gertrude Szpingier (1912 – 2006); HENLE, Werner (1910 – 1987); DIEHL, Volker S. (1938 – ); HAUSEN, Harald zur (1936 – ); KOHN, G.

Herpes-type virus and chromosome marker in normal leukocytes after growth with irradiated Burkitt cells.

Hausen and colleagues showed for the first time that a cancer virus (Epstein-Barr virus) can transform healthy cells (lymphocytes) into cancer cells. This showed that viruses can cause cancer cell formation. (Order of…

GMN 12662 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/14906

1970 BALTIMORE, David (1938 – )

Viral RNA-dependent DNA polymerase: RNA-dependent DNA polymerase in virions of RNA tumour viruses.

In 1970 Baltimore and Temin discovered that certain viruses that have their genes in the form of RNA can copy the RNA "backward" into DNA in infected cells. The enyzme, reverse transcriptase, enables the manufacture o…

GMN 2660.22 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3429

1970 TEMIN, Howard Martin (1934 – 1994); MIZUTANI, Satoshi

RNA-dependent DNA polymerase in virions of Rous sarcoma virus.

Discovery of reverse transcriptase. "In 1969, Temin and a postdoctoral fellow, Satoshi Mizutani, began searching for the enzyme that was responsible for the phenomenon of viral RNA being transferred into proviral DNA.…

GMN 2660.23 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3432

1975 DULBECCO, Renato (1914 – 2012)

From the molecular biology of oncogenic DNA viruses to cancer. Les Prix Nobel en 1975, pp. 172-80.

In 1975 Dulbecco shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with David Baltimore and Howard Martin Temin "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the c…

GMN 2660.27 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3440

1976 VARMUS, Harold Eliot (1942 – ); BISHOP, John Michael (1936 – ); STEHELIN, Dominique (1943 – 2019); VOGT, Peter K. (1932 – )

DNA related to the transforming gene(s) of avian sarcoma viruses is present in normal avian DNA.

Discovery of the first “oncogene. In 1989 Varmus and Bishop shared the Nobel Prize for in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes."

GMN 2660.28 · https://beta.historyofmedicine.com/id/3441