Qui-Lim Choo

Qui-Lim Choo is a Singapore-born scientist, who along with Michael Houghton, George Kuo and Daniel W. Bradley, co-discovered and cloned Hepatitis C in 1989.^[1][2] He also co-discovered the Hepatitis D genome in 1986.^[3] The discovery of Hepatitis C led to the rapid development of diagnostic reagents to detect Hepatitis C virus in blood supplies which has reduced the risk of acquiring hepatitis C through blood transfusion from one in three to about one in two million.^[4][5] It is estimated that antibody testing has prevented at least 40,000 new infections per year in the US alone and many more worldwide.^[6]

Qui-Lim Choo
Born	Singapore
Alma mater	Queen Elizabeth College King's College London (PhD)
Known for	Hepatitis C Hepatitis D
Awards	Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award (1992) William Beaumont Prize (1994) Dale A. Smith Memorial Award (2005)
Scientific career
Fields	Virology
Institutions	Chiron Corporation
Thesis	Neuronal proteins examined by a two-dimensional gel system (1980)

Early life and education

Choo received his undergraduate training at Queen Elizabeth College in 1973 and completed his PhD in biochemistry at King's College London in 1980.^[7] He trained under William J. Rutter at the University of California, San Francisco before joining Chiron Corporation.^[7]

Awards and recognition

He was awarded the Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award (1992) and Dale A. Smith Memorial Award (2005) of the American Association of Blood Banks, and the William Beaumont Prize of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1994.^[8][9]