Wednesday Nite @ The Lab

Burkitt's Lymphoma is the paradigm for a human cancer that is caused by a virus. It was unrecognized, although it was the most common childhood cancer in Africa, until the late 1950s when Denis Burkitt identified it in his patients. I will describe this story, how Tony Epstein found the Epstein-Barr virus, now known to cause Burkitt's lymphoma, how our ensuing studies have helped to reveal what this virus contributes to this Lymphoma, and how we are working to develop therapies for it.