Peyton Rous

Great Scientist 

American Pathologist, Nobel Laureate for his discovery of cancer being caused by viruses.

Francis Peyton Rous (October 5, 1879 – February 16, 1970) was born in Baltimore, Maryland and received his B.A. and M.D. from John Hopkins University. He joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York in 1909 and staying throughout his career.

Rous was involved in the discovery of the role of viruses in the transmission of certain types of cancer. In 1966 he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of tumor-inducing viruses.


As a pathologist he made his seminal observation that a malignant tumor (specifically, a sarcoma) growing on a domestic chicken could be transferred to another fowl simply by exposing the healthy bird to a cell-free filtrate, in 1911. 

This finding, that cancer could be transmitted by a virus (now known as the Rous sarcoma virus), was widely discredited by most of the field's experts at that time. Since he was a relative newcomer, it was several years before anyone even tried to replicate his results.

Clearly some influential researchers were impressed enough to nominate him to the Nobel Committee as early as 1926 (and in many subsequent years, until he finally received the award, 40 years later—this may be a record for the time between a discovery and a Nobel Prize).

Rous died in New York on February 16, 1970.



Resource: Peyton Rous - Facts. Nobelprize.org.  Accessed October 5, 2013.

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