Robert Joseph Huebner (February 23, 1914 – August 26, 1998), was an American physician and virologist whose research into viruses, their causes and treatment that led to his breakthrough insights into the connections between viruses and cancer, leading to new treatments, as well as his hypothesized oncogene, which was discovered to be a trigger for normal cells turning cancerous. Early life and education Huebner was born in Cheviot, Ohio, a western suburb of Cincinnati, on February 23, 1914. After attending a local parish elementary school, he attended Elder High School, graduating in 1932.<ref name=NIHBio>Beeman, Edward A. "Robert J. Huebner, M.D.:A Virologist’s Odyssey", National Institutes of Health, 2005. Accessed July 23, 2009.</ref> He attended Xavier College (later Xavier University, where he majored in economics and English literature and took the prerequisites to attend law school. He decided he wanted to become a physician and did his premed undergraduate training at the University of Cincinnati. He attended the Saint Louis University School of Medicine starting in 1938. He was threatened with expulsion from the school after officials there discovered that he had taken outside work to pay for his education in violation of school policy — including a job as a bouncer at a brothel — but stayed in school and graduated in 1942. He graduated in June 1942, ranked in the top five of his class of 100. After graduating, he joined the United States Public Health Service during World War II, and was assigned for a year to the United States Marine Hospital in Seattle, and then to the United States Coast Guard ship USS Hemlock in Alaska. The Public Health Service transferred him to a position as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health in July 1944. Rickettsialpox In June and July 1945, Huebner was asked to investigate an outbreak of cases of a spotted fever that struck more than 100 New York City residents, most of whom were residents of a single apartment complex in Kew Gardens, Queens. Local physicians hadn't initially reported the cases to authorities, as most presented with a rash and fever, but recovered within two weeks without any specific treatment. The New York City Department of Health was informed after a "minor epidemic" broke out at the Queens housing complex and individuals had been sent to hospitals with violent fevers and skin lesions. The seven known rickettsial diseases were all ruled out based