Alfred M. Prince is a virologist who has devoted most of his life to  the study of Hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) viruses, and HIV. He received his BA from Yale University, MA from Columbia University and received his M.D. from Western Reserve University. Dr. Prince was the first to prove that the Australia antigen was a component of HBV, which led to the development of screening assays which have largely eliminated HBV as a hazard of transfusion. He developed, in association with Pasteur Merieux Vaccins, Biotest, GMBH, and the Cheil Corportion, the first low cost HBV vaccine, which is in widespread use throughout Asia. Together with colleagues at the New York Blood Center he developed a procedure, now in use throughout the world, which has eliminated the risk of transmission of HBV, HCV, and HIV by plasma derivatives such as the anti-hemophiliac factor. In 1974 he reported that most postransfusion hepatitis was due to a virus other than HBV or Hepatitis A (HAV). He termed this agent HCV and has spent the bulk of his efforts since that time learning about the virus, and exploring approaches to prevention, and treatment of the chronic infection.

For five years, Dr. Prince and his team at the New York Blood Center have been investigating the use of DNA-based vaccines and immunotherapy to fight hepatitis. Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses vaccines to strengthen the immune response and thus eliminating the infecting virus. This year they successfully demonstrated that it is possible to clear HBV from a chronically infected chimpanzee.
In 1998 he founded the International Consortium for Bood Safety (ICBS) to try to improve the sorry state of blood safety in much of the developing world. With a $5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and significant in kind funding from CDC and from industry, ICBS is conducting programs in Africa, India, Central Asia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and South America. For further information see www.icbs-web.org

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