George Kuo

{{Short description|Taiwanese biochemist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Kuo Ching-Hung

| native_name = 郭勁宏

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| fields = Virology

| workplaces = Chiron Corporation

| alma_mater = National Taiwan University (MD)
Yeshiva University (PhD)

| thesis_title = The In Vitro Replication of Bacteriophage Q-Beta RNA

| thesis_url = https://repository.yu.edu/items/54fc19a5-b223-467d-a6a6-1cc49e326962

| thesis_year = 1972

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| known_for = Hepatitis C

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| awards = Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award (1992)
William Beaumont Prize (1994)
Dale A. Smith Memorial Award (2005)

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Kuo Ching-Hung ({{Lang-zh|t=郭勁宏}}), also known by his English name George Kuo, is a Taiwanese biochemist who, along with Michael Houghton, Qui-Lim Choo and Daniel W. Bradley, co-discovered and cloned the hepatitis C virus in 1989.{{cite journal |vauthors=Choo QL, Kuo G, Weiner AJ, Overby LR, Bradley DW, Houghton M |title=Isolation of a cDNA clone derived from a blood-borne non-A, non-B viral hepatitis genome |journal=Science |volume=244 |issue=4902 |pages=359–62 |date=April 1989 |pmid=2523562 |doi=10.1126/science.2523562|bibcode=1989Sci...244..359C |citeseerx=10.1.1.469.3592 }}{{cite web|url=http://protomag.com/assets/out-of-the-shadows-hepatitis-c|title=Out of the Shadows - Proto Magazine - Massachusetts General Hospital|publisher=protomag.com|accessdate=2014-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407075035/http://protomag.com/assets/out-of-the-shadows-hepatitis-c|archive-date=2014-04-07|url-status=dead}}

Following the discovery of Hepatitis C at Chiron Corporation, Kuo, who was working in a lab next door to Michael Houghton's, designed a test that could screen blood for the infection, and in 1988 Japanese Emperor Hirohito was the first person to receive blood that had been screened by Kuo's method.{{cite journal |title=The unsung heroes of the Nobel-winning hepatitis C discovery |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02932-y |journal=Nature |date=2020 |doi=10.1038/d41586-020-02932-y |accessdate=26 October 2020 |last1=Ledford |first1=Heidi |volume=586 |issue=7830 |page=485 |pmid=33082542 |bibcode=2020Natur.586..485L }} The United States would go on to license the testing technique in 1990. The development of diagnostic reagents to detect HCV in blood supplies has reduced the risk of acquiring HCV through blood transfusion from one in three to about one in two million.{{cite web|title=Opinion: Nobel-worthy discovery right in our backyard|url=http://www.chrcrm.org/en/node/6048|website=Canadian for Health Research|accessdate=4 September 2016}}{{cite news|title=Science world abuzz as virologist turns down Gairdner award|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/science-world-abuzz-as-virologist-turns-down-gairdner-award/article10052360/|website=The Globe and Mail|accessdate=10 September 2016}}

He was awarded the Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award (1992) and Dale A. Smith Memorial Award (2005) of the American Association of Blood Banks, and the William Beaumont Prize of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1994.{{cite web|title=List of Past AABB Award Recipients|url=http://www.aabb.org/about/awards/Pages/recipientspast.aspx|website=AABB|accessdate=4 October 2016}}{{cite web|title=William Beaumont Prize|url=http://www.gastro.org/about/awards/william-beaumont-prize-in-gastroenterology|website=American Gastroenterological Association|accessdate=4 October 2016}}