Lecture by Dr. Stanley Prusiner M.D

On Monday April 2, Dr. Stanley Prusiner will be speaking in 1210 LeBaron Hall at 4:10 PM. Dr. Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1997 for the discovery and characterization of prions. His discovery revolutionized current thought in infectious disease, when he discovered that an infectious self-replicating protein caused fatal spongiform encephalopathys such as CJD, Mad Cow disease, scrapie, and Kuru. Before this groundbreaking discovery, researchers assumed that pathogens required nucleic acid (DNA and RNA) to reproduce. Not since Louis Pasteur established the germ theory of disease has such a groundbreaking discovery in infectious disease been made. I would encourage anyone with a scientific interest to attend, it is a unique opportunity that you don't want to miss.