Stanley Prusiner graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1968 and quickly began a career track in neurology through an internship and residency at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. There he maintained several teaching and research positions in the areas of neurology, biochemistry, biophysics, and virology for more than 20 years. In 1997, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work with "prions." Prusiner first discovered in 1982 that certain proteins can cause widespread destruction of brain tissue, eventually resulting in death. He dubbed them proteinaceous infectious particles, or "prions." It is believed that prions can sometimes be passed from one animal to another--or even one species to another--by consumption of brain and spinal cord matter, and the resulting fatal condition in cattle is known as mad cow disease.
Information as of 1998