Renato Dulbecco on Tumor Viruses
  Renato Dulbecco     Biography    
Recorded: 22 Feb 2011

Tumor viruses? First of all, disease, they cause the formation of tumors, is the definition. And then the next aspect is to see, okay, these genes, are there specific gene's at fault. And you know already that the answer is yes there are. So now the next step would be try to determine complete-- as much as possible these genes which are involved and how they are involved. And therefore try whether to see when we can move to the conclusion of this which is the development of a technology that will reach, that will make it possible really to conquer the disease.

There's viruses that we worked with that had important features first of all they could be described in great detail, how they work, what they are, and so on. So then, this means can learn lots more about these viruses. And if you learn more, you'll be able to do more, in terms of learning and of changing. So that's it.

Renato Dulbecco was born in Catanzaro,Italy, in 1914. He studied medicine in Turin before joining the Italian Resistance movement against Benito Mussolini during theSecond Wold War.

After the war Dulbecco emigrated to the United States and worked with Salvador Luria at the University of Indiana before moving on to the University of California.

Won the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1964.

Won the 1975 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology with David Baltimore and Howard Temin "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell".