Harvey J. Alter, along with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice, received the 2020 Nobel Prize for medicine for discovery of the hepatitis C virus.

“For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population,” said the Nobel committee in a statement. They announced the prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Alter, 85, is an intramural researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.