US scientist receives award for medicine research

American scientist Dr. Charles Rice was presented with his Nobel Prize award at a low-key ceremony in New York on Tuesday. The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies have been reined in this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

There will be no glitzy banquet honoring winners in Stockholm or Oslo as the global pandemic curtails the usual celebrations.

Instead, their achievements will be recognized and rewarded at low-key ceremonies where they live and work in Europe and the United States.

Rice, fellow American Harvey J. Alter and British-born scientist Michael Houghton jointly won the Nobel Prize for medicine for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus, a major source of liver disease that affects millions worldwide.

Announcing the prize, the Nobel Committee noted that the trio's work identified a major source of blood-borne hepatitis that couldn't be explained by the previously discovered hepatitis A and B viruses.

Their work, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, has helped saved millions of lives, it said.

The prestigious Nobel award comes with a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1,118,000), courtesy of a bequest left 124 years ago by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

Rice said he hasn't thought about what to do with the prize money.

The medicine prize carried particular significance this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has highlighted the importance that medical research has for societies and economies around the world — and the damage that a single virus can wreak on the planet.