Illustration of the US virologist Charles M. Rice (born 1952). Rice has spent his career studying RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses. His work on the genomes and structural proteins of Sindbis virus and yellow fever virus established the Flavivirus family of viruses. The strain of yellow fever virus used for Rice's research was used to make the yellow fever vaccine. In 1989 Rice moved his focus to the newly discovered hepatitis C virus (HCV) and in 1997 produced the first infectious clone of HCV, allowing it to be studied in chimpanzees. Rice and others then developed cell lines of human liver cancer cells that were eventually able to produce infectious virus particles that could be studied in the lab. This meant that new diagnostic tests and treatments could be developed for HCV. Rice was awarded a share of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on HCV along with Harvey J. Alter and Michael Houghton.