Stanley Benjamin Prusiner (born May 28, 1942
) is an American
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
and
biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological ch ...
. He is the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It ...
(UCSF). Prusiner discovered
prion
Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals. It i ...
s, a class of
infectious
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dis ...
self-reproducing pathogen
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a g ...
s primarily or solely composed of
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...
. He received the
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 50 ...
in 1994 and the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
in 1997 for prion research developed by him and his team of experts (David E. Garfin, D. P. Stites, W. J. Hadlow, C. W. Eklund) beginning in the early 1970s.
Early life, career and research
He was born in
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...
, to Miriam (Spigel) and Lawrence Prusiner, an architect. He spent his childhood in Des Moines and
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...
, where he attended
Walnut Hills High School
, streetaddress = 3250 Victory Parkway
, city = Cincinnati
, state = Ohio
, zipcode = 45207
, country = United States
, coordinates =
, type ...
, where he was known as "the little genius" for his groundbreaking work on a repellent for
Boxelder bugs. Prusiner received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree in
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...
from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
and later received his
M.D. from the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...
.
Prusiner then completed an
internship
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
in medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Later Prusiner moved to the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...
, where he studied glutaminases in ''
E. coli'' in the laboratory of Earl Stadtman.
After three years at NIH, Prusiner returned to UCSF to complete a
residency
Residency may refer to:
* Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place
** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship
* Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...
in
neurology
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...
. Upon completion of the residency in 1974, Prusiner joined the faculty of the UCSF neurology department. Since that time, Prusiner has held various faculty and visiting faculty positions at both UCSF and
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
.
Since 1999, Prusiner has been director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases research laboratory at UCSF, working on prion disease,
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
and
tauopathies.
Awards and honors
Stanley Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1997 for his work in proposing an explanation for the cause of
bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...
("mad cow disease") and its human equivalent,
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), also known as subacute spongiform encephalopathy or neurocognitive disorder due to prion disease, is an invariably fatal degenerative brain disorder. Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes ...
.
In this work, he coined the term ''prion'', which comes from the words "proteinaceous" and "infectious," in 1982 to refer to a previously undescribed form of infection due to protein misfolding.
Prusiner was elected to the
National Academy of Science
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...
in 1992 and to its governing council in 2007. He is also an elected member of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...
(1993), a
Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1997,
and the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
(1998), the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...
(2003), and the
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...
.
*
Potamkin Prize The Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick's, Alzheimer's, and Related Diseases was established in 1988 and is sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology. The prize is funded through the philanthropy of the Potamkin Foundation. The prize is awarded ...
for Alzheimer's Disease Research from the American Academy of Neurology (1991)
* The
Richard Lounsbery Award
The Richard Lounsbery Award is given to American and French scientists, 45 years or younger, in recognition of "extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine."
The Award alternates between French and American scientists, and is a ...
for Extraordinary Scientific Research in Biology and Medicine from the National Academy of Sciences (1993)
*
Dickson Prize
The Dickson Prize in Medicine and the Dickson Prize in Science were both established in 1969 by Joseph Z. Dickson and Agnes Fischer Dickson.
Dickson Prize in Medicine
The Dickson Prize in Medicine is awarded annually by the University of Pittsburg ...
(1993)
* The
Gairdner Foundation International Award
The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...
(1993)
* The
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 50 ...
(1994)
* The
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...
from the Federal Republic of Germany (1995)
* The
Wolf Prize in Medicine
The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Arts. The ...
from the
Wolf Foundation
The Wolf Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization in Israel established in 1975 by Ricardo Wolf, a German-born Jewish Cuban inventor and former Cuban ambassador to Israel.
Ricardo Wolf
Ricardo Wolf, the founder of the Wolf Foundat ...
/
State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
(1996)
*
Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer The Grand Prix Charles-Léopold Mayer (Charles-Léopold Mayer Prize) is awarded annually by the Académie des Sciences (French Academy of Sciences) de l'Institut de France (the French Institute) to researchers who have performed outstanding work in ...
(1996)
* The
Keio International Award for Medical Science (1996)
* Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
(1996)
* The
Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemis ...
from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(1997)
* The
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
(1997)
* The
Benjamin Franklin Medal from the
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...
(1998)
* Honorary Doctorate from
CEU Cardinal Herrera University (2005)
* The
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
(2010)
See also
*
Laura Manuelidis
Laura Manuelidis is a physician and neuropathologist at Yale University.
Career
Manuelidis earned her B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied poetry, and her M.D. is from Yale Medical School. She is head of the section of Neur ...
*
Frank Bastian
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prusiner, Stanley B.
1942 births
Living people
Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
American Nobel laureates
Richard-Lounsbery Award laureates
American biochemists
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Jewish American scientists
Jewish chemists
Jewish physicians
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Prions
University of California, San Francisco faculty
University of California, San Francisco alumni
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates
People from Des Moines, Iowa
Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
Howard Hughes Medical Investigators
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Members of the National Academy of Medicine