Stanley Prusiner, MD
Stanley B. Prusiner, MD, is a professor of neurology and biochemistry and director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UCSF. While at the university, Dr. Prusiner discovered an unprecedented class of pathogens that he named prions. Prions are infectious proteins that cause neurodegenerative diseases in animals and humans.
Dr. Prusiner’s contributions to scientific research have been internationally recognized with numerous prizes including the Richard Lounsbery Award, the Albert Lasker Award and the Nobel Prize.
Editor of 11 books and more than 500 research articles, Dr. Prusiner holds 50 issued or allowed United States patents, all of which are assigned to the University of California.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and is a foreign member of the Royal Society, London
Dr. Prusiner received his undergraduate and medical training at the University of Pennsylvania and his postgraduate clinical training at UCSF.