Nobel Prize

In the course of 1991, several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals began simultaneously to discuss the necessity of coordinating initiatives and calls for a ban on antipersonnel landmines. Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation came together in October 1992 to formalize…

Professor Francis Sejersted delivering his speech. © Knudsens fotosenter/Dextra Photo, Norsk Teknisk Museum. Presentation Speech by Professor Francis Sejersted, Chairman of the , on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1997, Oslo, December 10, 1997. Translation of the Norwegian text. Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, There are those among…

Born 9 October 1950. ProfessionMs. Jody Williams is the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which was formally launched by six nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in October of 1992. Ms. Williams has overseen the growth of the ICBL to more than 1,000 NGOs in more than sixty countries. She has served as…

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5. In neurons infected with the prion protein, more and more PrPSc will gradually be produced forming larger fibrillar aggregates. When a critical level of PrPSc has accumulated, the neurons die, resulting in large vacuoles. The affected brain regions become sponge-like in appearance, hence the name spongiform encephalopathies, to describe all prion diseases.  

4. In hereditary forms of prion diseases, a genetic change (a mutation represented by the red dot) in one of the two genes encoding PrPc, may result in a slightly altered structure of the PrPc-protein. The mutation makes it easier for PrPc to change its conformation into PrPSc, initating a chain reaction that will result…

An animation illustrating the discovery the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shown during the press conference on October 6, 1997 at Karolinska Institutet, is presented here. The latter part of the presentation contains only images and text. This is a 2.7 Mb Shockwave animation. To download the Shockwave player, click on the icon…

8. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Nobel Laureate studied a disease called kuru which spread among the Fore people in New Guinea through cannibalistic rituals. Kuru means shivering or trembling in the Fore language. The picture, taken by Gajdusek in 1957, shows an 8-year old girl in an advanced stage of kuru.

6. This microscopic picture shows a histological section from a prion-infected brain. (1) Vacuoles that are formed as a result of neuronal cell death, results in a sponge-like appearance of the brain.