Introduction
Bert Geoffrey Achong (6 December 1928 - 20 November 1996) was a Trinidadian pathologist.
He is best known for co-discovering the Epstein-Barr virus through use of electron microscopy.
Career
Achong was born in Trinidad of Chinese descent. After excelling in school in Trinidad, he was awarded the Jerningham Gold Medal and the Colonial Scholarship to study in Europe. He enrolled at University College Dublin, where he received his medical degree in 1953. In 1955 he moved to London, and worked at Lambeth Hospital in London in Clinical Pathology. In 1963, he joined Michael Anthony Epstein's research group at Middlesex Hospital. He moved with Epstein to the Department of Pathology at University of Bristol in 1968, where he was a popular lecturer on cellular pathology until his retirement in 1985. He died of a brain tumour in 1996.
Epstein-Barr virus
Achong, Michael Anthony Epstein and Yvonne Barr discovered the first example of a human cancer-causing virus. They published the discovery of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in The Lancet on 28 March 1984.
Achong's role in the discovery of EBV was to prepare and examine cultured cells prepared from Burkitt's lymphoma samples by electron microscopy.
Foamy virus
In 1971 Achong made another major discovery, the human foamy virus. This was proved to be the first example of a retrovirus naturally infecting humans.