Life
Prince 1928-2011 (82 years old)
Blumberg 1925-2011 (85 years old)
Country
Prince – United States
Blumberg – United States
Year of great discovery/work
1967-1968
As a geneticist, Blumberg developed the idea that people from different backgrounds had varying susceptibilities to different infections—and thus concluded that disease susceptibility is genetic. While working on this hypothesis, Blumberg discovered Australia antigen. Shortly thereafter Prince (a virologist) figured out that Australia antigen was part of the hepatitis B virus. With Blumberg and Prince’s work as a foundation, a blood-derived vaccine was developed by Maurice Hilleman. For his discovery of Australia antigen, Blumberg won the Nobel Prize—an award many in the scientific community believed should have included Prince.
Did you know?
In 2010, Dr. Prince wrote a memoir about his life working in science.