Baruch Blumberg, who had worked at Fox Chase Cancer Center since 1964 and still maintained an office there, discovered the hepatitis B virus and later helped develop a vaccine against it. The vaccine, which is now made in a different way, was approved by the FDA in 1981. Blumberg's work also allowed blood banks to screen for hepatitis B, a bloodborne virus. It can cause serious liver disease, liver cancer and death.
"His vaccine and his research have saved hundreds of thousands of lives," said Ann Skalka, basic science director emerita at Fox Chase in Northeast Philadelphia.
Friends and family described him as an unusually curious, outgoing, funny, affable and adventurous man who traveled widely and loved walking in his beloved Philadelphia. He had given up active research in recent years, but still had the title of senior adviser to the president and CEO at Fox Chase and university professor at the University of Pennsylvania. At NASA, he had focused his formidable intellect on studying the possibility of life in space.
Blumberg, who was known as Barry, was also the current president of the American Philosophical Society, a Philadelphia-based learned society founded by Benjamin Franklin.
Blumberg traveled the world for his research and was particularly interested in Lewis and Clark's journals, which were part of the society's collection. He started a Lewis and Clark grant program to help young scholars do field research, Annie Westcott, director of meetings for the group, said.
Skalka, who had worked with Blumberg since 1987 and considered him a friend, said he remained a staunch advocate for basic science. He believed that practical applications would flow from understanding basic biology. He thought that research would reveal an increasingly important role for viruses in the development of some cancers.
