23/07/2026
One in two people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime, yet the role viruses play in the development of cancer was poorly understood before the work of three researchers who received the Nobel Prize in 1975.
David Baltimore and Howard Temin were lauded alongside Renato Dulbecco "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell."
Baltimore and Temin built upon 1966 Nobel Prize laureate Peyton Rous’ discovery that a retrovirus can cause cancer in chickens, by studying how tumour-causing retroviruses replicate after they infect a healthy cell. They independently found that retroviruses, which are so called RNA-viruses, contain the blueprint for an unusual enzyme called reverse transcriptase that can make a copy of DNA from RNA. The ‘new’ DNA integrates with the infected host cell, transforming it into a cancer cell.
Although we now know that viruses rarely cause cancer, the groundbreaking work of Temin and Baltimore had a major impact on our understanding of cancer at the genetic level.
The laureates’ work has enhanced our understanding of cancer. Learn more about their work: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1975/press-release/
