Editing Hepatitis (section)

=== Australia antigen ===
The next insight regarding hepatitis B was a serendipitous one by [[Baruch Samuel Blumberg|Dr. Baruch Blumberg]], a researcher at the NIH who did not set out to research hepatitis, but rather studied lipoprotein genetics.  He travelled across the globe collecting blood samples, investigating the interplay between disease, environment, and genetics with the goal of designing  targeted interventions for at-risk people that could prevent them from getting sick.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Les Prix Nobel|last=Odelberg|first=Wilhelm|year=1976}}</ref>  He noticed an unexpected interaction between the blood of a patient with [[Haemophilia|hemophilia]] that had received multiple transfusions and a protein found in the blood of an indigenous Australian person.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alter|first=Harvey J.|date=2014-01-01|title=The road not taken or how I learned to love the liver: A personal perspective on hepatitis history|journal=Hepatology|language=en|volume=59|issue=1|pages=4–12|doi=10.1002/hep.26787|pmid=24123147|issn=1527-3350|doi-access=free}}</ref>  He named the protein the "Australia antigen" and made it the focus of his research.  He found a higher prevalence of the protein in the blood of patients from developing countries, compared to those from developed ones, and noted associations of the antigen with other diseases like leukemia and Down Syndrome.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Blumberg BS|last2=Alter HJ|date=1965-02-15|title=A "new" antigen in leukemia sera|journal=JAMA|volume=191|issue=7|pages=541–546|doi=10.1001/jama.1965.03080070025007|issn=0098-7484|pmid=14239025}}</ref>  Eventually, he came to the unifying conclusion that the Australia antigen was associated with viral hepatitis.

In 1970, [[David Dane]] first isolated the hepatitis B [[virion]] at London's Middlesex Hospital, and named the virion the 42-nm "Dane particle".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>  Based on its association with the surface of the hepatitis B virus, the Australia antigen was renamed to "hepatitis B surface antigen" or [[HBsAg]].

Blumberg continued to study the antigen, and eventually developed the first hepatitis B vaccine using plasma rich in HBsAg, for which he received the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize in Medicine]] in 1976.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1976/blumberg/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1976|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-07}}</ref>