Discovery of Drugs for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Week of March 16, 2019

Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D., is Director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Professor of Neurology at the University of California San Francisco. Editor of 11 books and author of over 500 research articles, Dr. Prusiner’s contributions to scientific research are internationally recognized. Dr. Prusiner discovered an unprecedented class of pathogens that he named prions. His discovery led him to develop a novel disease paradigm considered heretical at the time. Dr. Prusiner has since proven that prions cause neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many of the frontotemporal dementias (FTDs) as well as some forms of ALS. Much of Dr. Prusiner’s current research focuses on developing therapeutics that reduce the levels of prions causing neurodegeneration.   Among his many honors for his groundbreaking work, Dr. Prusiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1997) and the United States National Medal of Science (2009). Prusiner’s single-author book, Madness and Memory (Yale University Press, 2014), which chronicles his discovery of prions, has received wide acclaim.