Rous, Francis Peyton, << rows, FRAN sihs PAY tuhn >> (1879-1970), an American medical researcher, proved that viruses cause some types of cancer. In 1910, Rous ground up a cancerous tumor from a chicken and filtered out everything larger than a virus. The resulting liquid produced cancer when injected into other chickens. For many years, scientists scoffed at Rous’s discovery. These scientists believed cancer could not be caused by a virus because the disease is not contagious. In 1966, Rous shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work.
Rous was born in Baltimore and earned an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1905. He joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in 1909 and worked there for more than 60 years. In 1915 and 1916, during World War I, Rous helped develop a method of storing blood for transfusions. This technique made possible the establishment of blood banks. He died on Feb. 16, 1970.
