Professor of Neurology and Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

Research interests : Stanley Prusiner discovered an entirely new class of pathogens that replicate without nucleic acid. Through this work, he created a new field of research that has resulted in significant progress in understanding degenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). His revolutionary studies have made conceptual advances in elucidating mechanisms of age-dependent CNS diseases.

Awards :
- Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer's Disease Research, American Academy of Neurology, 1991
- Christopher Columbus Quincentennial Discovery Award in Biomedical Research, NIH, 1992 Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for Medical Research, 1992
- Dickson Prize for Distinguished Scientific Accomplishments, University of Pittsburgh, 1992
- Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health, 1992
- Richard Lounsbery Award for Extraordinary Scientific Research, NAS, 1993
- Gairdner Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Science, 1993
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Res., 1994
- Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, 1994
- Paul Ehrlich Prize, Paul Ehrlich Foundation and the Federal Republic of Germany, 1995
- Wolf Prize in Medicine, Wolf Foundation and the State of Israel, 1996
- Keio International Award for Medical Science, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, 1996

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1997 "for his discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection"

Selected publications :
- Prusiner, S.B.: Prions. In Les Prix Nobel 1997, pp. 262-323, 1998. Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden. Reprinted in Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 95:13363-13383, 1998.
- Viles, J.H., Cohen, F.E., Prusiner, S.B., Goodin, D.B., Wright, P.E., Dyson, H.J.: Copper binding to the prion protein: structural implications of four identical cooperative binding sites. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:2042-2047, 1999.
- Supattapone, S., Bosque, P., Muramoto, T., Wille, H., Aagaard, C., Peretz, D., Nguyen, H.-O. B., Heinrich, C., Torchia, M., Safar, J., Cohen, F.E., DeArmond, S.J., Prusiner, S.B., Scott, M.: Prion protein of 106 residues creates an artificial transmission barrier for prion replication in transgenic mice. Cell 96:869-878, 1999.
- Liu, H., Farr-Jones, S., Ulyanov, N.B., Llinas, M., Marqusee, S., Groth, D., Cohen, F.E., Prusiner, S.B., James, T.L.: Solution structure of Syrian hamster prion protein rPrP(90-231). Biochemistry 38:5362-5377, 1999.

All rights reserved © 2000 International Center for Scientific Research

[home]