The Reporter: December 1997, Vol.8, No.5
Horwitz Prize Again "Predicts" Nobelist

 This year's Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize recognized the work of Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, professor of neurology and biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Prusiner has made ground-breaking contributions by discovering and studying the prion, a protein capable of transmitting degenerative neurological diseases. Following the announcement of the award, Dr. Prusiner was also awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

 Dr. Prusiner presented the Horwitz Prize Lecture, "Prions-Fatal Conformational Changes in Humans and Cows," at P&S on Oct. 23 and was presented the award at an event that evening in the Low Library Rotunda.

 In 1982, Dr. Prusiner stunned the scientific community by proposing that the infectious agent in scrapie-a neurodegenerative disease of sheep-was not a virus or bacteria, but a new agent containing only protein, which he called a prion. Prions, for "proteinaceous infectious particles," are a misshapen form of a usually harmless protein that exists in the brain. Prions are thought to cause disease by forcing normal protein to also change shape, thereby becoming toxic to brain cells. Although Dr. Prusiner's work on prions generated much controversy, he persisted and almost single-handedly constructed arguments that have led to widespread acceptance of his research.

 The Horwitz Prize, established in 1967, is given annually by Columbia University for outstanding research in biology or biochemistry. More than half of its recipients have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.