View source for Stanley B. Prusiner

{{Short description|American neurologist and chemist (born 1942)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Stanley B. Prusiner in 2024 (3x4 cropped).jpg
| caption           = Prusiner in 2024
| name              = Stanley B. Prusiner
| birth_name        = Stanley Ben Prusiner
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1942|5|28}}
| birth_place       = [[Des Moines, Iowa]], U.S.
| nationality       = American
| field             = {{Plainlist|
* [[Neurology]]
* [[Infectious disease]]s}}
| work_institution  = {{Plainlist|
* [[University of California, Berkeley]]
* [[University of California, San Francisco]]}}
| alma_mater        = [[University of Pennsylvania]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[M. D.|MD]])
| known_for         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Prion]]s
* [[Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy]]
* [[Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease]]}}
| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Potamkin Prize]] {{small|(1991)}}
* [[Metlife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease]] {{small|(1991)}}<ref name=MetLife>{{Cite web|url=http://mlfawards.afar.org/docs/2016Edition_MetLifeFoundationAwards_PastWinners.pdf|title=MetLife Foundation Awards for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013093256/http://mlfawards.afar.org/docs/2016Edition_MetLifeFoundationAwards_PastWinners.pdf|archive-date=October 13, 2018}}</ref>
* [[Dickson Prize]] {{small|(1993)}}
* [[Richard Lounsbery Award]]  {{small|(1993)}}
* [[Lasker Award]] {{small|(1994)}}
* [[Keio Medical Science Prize]] {{small|(1996)}}
* [[Wolf Prize in Medicine]] (1996)
* [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] {{small|(1997)}}
* [[Fellow of the Royal Society|ForMemRS]] {{small|(1997)}}<ref name=frs/>
* [[Sir Hans Krebs Medal]] {{small|(1999)}}}}
| spouse            = Sandy Turk Prusiner<ref name=nobelprize/>
| children          = 2<ref name=nobelprize>{{Nobelprize}}</ref>
| website           = {{URL|http://ind.ucsf.edu/ind/aboutus/faculty/prusiners}}
}}

'''Stanley Ben Prusiner''' (born May 28, 1942<ref name="nobelprize"/>) is an American [[Neurology|neurologist]] and [[biochemist]]. He is the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the [[University of California, San Francisco]] (UCSF).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stanley-Prusiner |title=Stanley Prusiner |work=[[ResearchGate]]}}</ref> Prusiner discovered [[prion]]s, a class of [[Infection|infectious]] [[Biological reproduction|self-reproducing]] [[pathogen]]s primarily or solely composed of [[protein]], a scientific theory considered by many as a [[#Prion: A heretical idea|heretical idea]] when first proposed. He received the [[Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]] in 1994 and the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1997 for research on prion diseases developed by him and his team of experts (among them [[QPNC-PAGE#Persons|D. E. Garfin]], D. P. Stites, W. J. Hadlow and C. M. Eklund) beginning in the early 1970s.<ref name=Prusiner1982>{{cite journal
|author=Prusiner S. B.
|title=Novel proteinaceous infectious particles cause scrapie
|journal=Science
|year=1982
|volume=216
|pages=136–144
|doi=10.1126/science.6801762
|pmid=6801762
|issue=4542|bibcode = 1982Sci...216..136P }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|author=Prusiner S. B.
|title=Molecular biology of prion diseases
|journal=Science
|year=1991
|volume=252
|pages=1515–1522
|doi=10.1126/science.1675487
|pmid=1675487
|issue=5012|bibcode = 1991Sci...252.1515P |s2cid=22417182
}}</ref>

==Early life, career and research==
Prusiner was born into a Jewish<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine |url=https://www.jinfo.org/Nobels_Medicine.html |access-date=2023-03-30 |website=www.jinfo.org}}</ref> family in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], the son of Miriam (Spigel) and Lawrence Prusiner, an architect. He spent his childhood in Des Moines and [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, where he attended [[Walnut Hills High School]], where he was known as "the little genius" for his groundbreaking work on a repellent for [[Boxelder bug]]s. Prusiner received a Bachelor of Arts [[Academic degree|degree]] in [[chemistry]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and later received his [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine]].<ref name="nobelprize"/> Prusiner then completed an [[internship]] in medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Later Prusiner moved to the [[National Institutes of Health]], where he studied glutaminases in ''[[Escherichia coli|E. coli]]'' in the laboratory of Earl Stadtman.<ref name="Madness">{{cite book | last= Prusiner |first= Stanley B. |date= 2014 |title= Madness and Memory: The Discovery of Prions - a New Biological Principle of Disease |location= New Haven |publisher= Yale University Press | isbn= 978-0-300-19114-1}}</ref>

After three years at NIH, Prusiner returned to UCSF to complete a [[Residency (medicine)|residency]] in [[neurology]]. Upon completion of the residency in 1974, Prusiner joined the faculty of the UCSF Department of Neurology. Since that time, Prusiner has held various faculty and visiting faculty positions at both UCSF and [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]].<ref name="Madness"/><ref name="Nobel Media AB">{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1997/prusiner-cv.html|publisher=Nobel Media AB|title=Stanley B. Prusiner – Curriculum Vitae}}</ref>

Since 1999, Prusiner has been director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases research laboratory at UCSF, working on prion diseases, [[Alzheimer's disease]], [[synucleinopathies]] and [[tauopathy|tauopathies]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://prusinerlab.ucsf.edu/people/director.php|title=UCSF – Prusiner Laboratory – Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D.|date=August 28, 2008|access-date=May 9, 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828015629/http://prusinerlab.ucsf.edu/people/director.php|archive-date=August 28, 2008}}</ref>

==Prion: a heretical idea==
In his 1998 PNAS review article on prions, Prusiner wrote:<ref name=prions1998/> "The idea that scrapie prions were composed of an amyloidogenic protein was truly heretical when it was introduced" (by [[Tikvah Alper]]<ref>{{citation |author=T. Alper |title=The exceptionally small size of the Scrapie agent |journal=Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications |year=1966 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=278–284 |doi=10.1016/0006-291X(66)90478-5|pmid=4957205 |bibcode=1966BBRC...22..278A }}</ref><ref>{{citation |author1=T. Alper |author2=W.A. Cramp |author3=D.A. Haig |author4=M.C. Clarke |title=Does the agent of Scrapie replicate without nucleic acid? |journal=Nature  |date=1967 |volume=214 |issue=5090 |pages=764–766 |doi=10.1038/214764a0|pmid=4963878 |bibcode=1967Natur.214..764A }}</ref>).
[[Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy|Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies]], as [[scrapie]] and other prion diseases are also known, are diseases that leave the brains of their victims full of holes. Scientists did not know what pathogen or disease-causing organism produced such a pattern. Prusiner and his co-workers suggested "One scientific theory, viewed as heretical in that it seems to challenge the role of nucleic acids as the exclusive carriers of genetic information." This theory suggested that the pathogen causing prion diseases might be a "deadly variety of a normal protein that has the ability to amplify itself in the brain. The hypothetical protein is called a prion (pronounced PREE-on),"<ref name=prions1998>{{cite journal |author=Stanley Prusiner |title=Prions |date=November 10, 1998 |journal=PNAS|volume=95 |issue=23 |pages=13363–13383 |doi=10.1073/pnas.95.23.13363 |doi-access=free |pmid=9811807 |pmc=33918 |bibcode=1998PNAS...9513363P }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Heretical Theory On Brain Diseases Gains New Ground |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/08/science/heretical-theory-on-brain-diseases-gains-new-ground.html |date=October 8, 1991 |author=Sandra Blakeslee |journal=New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D. |url=https://www.bu.edu/amyloid/events/prusiner-bio/ |publisher=Boston University, Amyloidosis Center |access-date=August 25, 2023}}</ref> a [[portmanteau]] based on the words "proteinaceous" and "infectious".<ref name=Prusiner1982/>

==Awards and honors==
Stanley Prusiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1997 for his work in proposing an explanation for the cause of scrapie, [[bovine spongiform encephalopathy]] ("mad cow disease") and human prion diseases such as [[Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease]].<ref name="nobelprize"/> He was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] in 1992 and to its governing council in 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stanley B. Prusiner|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/61615.html|access-date=2021-12-06|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> He is also an elected member of [[the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1993),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stanley Ben Prusiner|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/stanley-ben-prusiner|access-date=2021-12-06|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en}}</ref> a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1997|Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1997]],<ref name=frs>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|archive-date=2015-03-16|url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London|title=Fellows of the Royal Society}}</ref><ref name=frs2>{{cite web|title=Fellowship of the Royal Society 1660–2015|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|publisher=Royal Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185820/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|archive-date=2015-10-15|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1998),<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Stanley+B.+Prusiner&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-12-06|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> the [[Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]] (2003), and the [[Institute of Medicine]].

{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* [[Potamkin Prize]] for Alzheimer's Disease Research from the American Academy of Neurology (1991)
* [[Metlife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease]] (1991)
* The [[Richard Lounsbery Award]] for Extraordinary Scientific Research in Biology and Medicine from the National Academy of Sciences (1993)
* [[Dickson Prize]] (1993)
* The [[Gairdner Foundation International Award]] (1993)
* The [[Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]] (1994)
* The [[Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize]] from the Federal Republic of Germany (1995)
* The [[Wolf Prize in Medicine]] from the [[Wolf Foundation]] (1996)
* [[Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer]] (1996)
* The [[Keio Medical Science Prize|Keio International Award for Medical Science]] (1996)
* Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]] (1996)<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref>
* The [[Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]] from [[Columbia University]] (1997)
* The [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] (1997)<ref name="nobelprize"/>
* The [[Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute)|Benjamin Franklin Medal]] from the [[Franklin Institute]] (1998)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fi.edu/winners/show_results.faw?gs=&ln=&fn=&keyword=&subject=&award=BF+&sy=1997&ey=1999&name=Submit |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130403072434/http://www.fi.edu/winners/show_results.faw?gs=&ln=&fn=&keyword=&subject=&award=BF+&sy=1997&ey=1999&name=Submit |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-04-03 |title=Franklin Laureate Database – Benjamin Franklin Medal 1998 Laureates |publisher=[[Franklin Institute]] |access-date=2013-02-14 }}</ref>
* Honorary Doctorate from [[CEU Cardinal Herrera University]] (2005)
* The [[National Medal of Science]] (2010)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117875|title=White House Announces National Medal of Science Laureates – NSF – National Science Foundation|website=www.nsf.gov|access-date=May 9, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522115248/https://nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117875|archive-date=May 22, 2017}}</ref>
{{div col end}}

==See also==
* [[Frank Bastian]]
* [[Daniel Carleton Gajdusek]]
* [[Laura Manuelidis]]
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

==References==
{{Scholia|author}}
{{Reflist|35em}}

==External links==
* {{Nobelprize}}
{{Wolf Prize in Medicine}}
{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1997 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{FRS 1997}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prusiner, Stanley B.}}
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Richard-Lounsbery Award laureates]]
[[Category:American biochemists]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Jewish American scientists]]
[[Category:Jewish chemists]]
[[Category:Jewish physicians]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Prion researchers]]
[[Category:University of California, San Francisco faculty]]
[[Category:University of California, San Francisco alumni]]
[[Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates]]
[[Category:People from Des Moines, Iowa]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]]
[[Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates]]
[[Category:Walnut Hills High School alumni]]
[[Category:Jewish Nobel laureates]]