Watch CBS News

Hepatitis B Foundation In Bucks County To Get Name Change

By Brad Segall

BUCKS COUNTY (CBS) -- The Hepatitis B Foundation in Bucks County is holding a grand reopening Monday morning for its research institute renaming it for Pennsylvania's only Nobel Prize winner for Medicine.

Dr. Baruch Blumberg won the Nobel Prize nearly forty years ago for his discovery of the Hepatitis B virus.

During his lifetime he also came up with a vaccine but never a cure.

The Foundation continues to move his mission forward with cutting edge research in Doylestown.

Foundation President Dr. Tim Block says, "he was my mentor. He helped us start the Foundation 23 years ago. He helped us start the Institute. He was an inspiration to everyone who worked here."

Dr. Block says it was important to find a place to maintain Dr. Blumberg's legacy.

He lived in Philadelphia and began his ground-breaking work during the 1960s at the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

He died two years ago at the age of 85.

Hepatitis B is the most common serious liver infection and the primary cause of liver cancer worldwide.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.