Nobel Prize

My history is not atypical of many Americans: born in the midwest, educated in the East, and now living in the West. My early years were shared between Des Moines, Iowa and Cincinnati, Ohio. Shortly after I was born on May 28, 1942 in Des Moines, my father, Lawrence, was drafted into the United States…

Prions are simple proteins that are much smaller than viruses. They are unique since they lack a genome. All other known infectious agents contain genetic material. Bacteria are often surrounded by a strong protective cell wall and replicate through simple cell division. Fungi may cause infections of the mouth, throat, lungs, and skin. Parasites thrive…

Contents: These pages are based on material from the 1997 Physiology or Medicine Nobel Poster.

  The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1997 to Stanley B. Prusiner, for his discovery of “prions – a new biological principle of infection”. Stanley B. Prusiner was born in 1942 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Since 1968 he has been…

Prions affect different regions of the brain. A sponge-like appearance results when nerve cells die. Symptoms depend on which region of the brain is affected. Cerebral cortex When the cerebral cortex is affected, the symptoms include loss of memory and mental acuity, and sometimes also visual imparement (CJD). Thalamus Damage to the thalamus may result…

1. Through horizontal transmission from e.g. a sheep to a cow (BSE). 2. In inherited forms, mutations in the prion gene are transmitted from parent to child. 3. They can arise spontaneously. Route of infection When cows are fed with offals prepared from infected sheep, prions are taken up from the gut and transported along…

NOBELFÖRSAMLINGEN KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET THE NOBEL ASSEMBLY AT THE KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE 6 October 1997 has today decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1997 to Stanley B. Prusiner for his discovery of “Prions – a new biological principle of infection”. Summary The 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to…

2. When a cow is fed with offals derived from a PrPSc-infected sheep, prions are somehow taken up from the gut and transported to the brain. The details of this process are not yet known, but one likely scenario is that PrPSc enters a nerve ending (synapse) from where it is transported along the nerve…

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