Normal cervical cells as seen in a Pap test
(above) contrast with the precancerous cells
(below) caused by a persistent HPV infection.
1980s – Researchers at the University of Rochester try to experiment on HPV but are stymied by a dearth of the virus itself.
1986 – John Kreider finds a way to mass-produce HPV: He collects foreskins from infant circumcisions, infects them with HPV, and grafts them onto mice whose compromised immune systems cannot reject the graft or fight the virus.
1990 – Evidence that HPV causes of cervical cancer mounts, and the race to develop an HPV vaccine is on.
1990 – Researchers at the University of Rochester combine antibodies from infected rabbits with the live virus; the proof-of-concept vaccine successfully prevents foreskin-grafted mice from contracting HPV on their borrowed private parts.
1990-92 – Robert Rose and other Rochester researchers build a protein coat that mimics the shape of an HPV envelope without any viral DNA inside. Built by a harmless baculovirus that grows only on insect cells, the viruslike particles prevent future HPV infection but don’t carry any risk of disease.
1994 – Trials using killed strains of rabbit papillomavirus are close to 100 percent effective in preventing future infections in rabbits. Unfortunately, there’s a risk that some viral DNA could still cause disease, so researchers turn to the viruslike particles for a safer vaccine.
1998 – Alan Storey finds a genetic mutation that increases the risk of cervical cancer and is rare among Jewish women. So there was something significant about Jewish immunity after all—it just wasn’t smegma.
2002 – Studies show that circumcised men have 60% less chance of contracting HPV, which translates into a slight reduction in cervical-cancer risk for their partners. This may explain why some circumcision studies from the '50s showed a small reduction in cervical cancer among circumcised non-Jewish populations.
2005 – Merck and GlaxoSmithKline agree with the National Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Queensland to cooperate on two different HPV vaccines.
2005-2006 – Merck and GSK report that the two HPV vaccines made from viruslike particles are 100 percent effective against the targeted HPV strains.
2006 – Merck’s HPV vaccine, Gardasil, is approved for use in the U.S., and physicians recommend vaccinating all young girls before they become sexually active. A second HPV vaccine, Cervarix, which is made by GSK and targets some different HPV strains, is still in review by the FDA.
