Stanley Prusiner (born 1942) won the Nobel Prize in Physiology for Medicine in 1997 for his discovery of the prion, originally described as a disease-producing agent in animals and humans that, unlike any other known pathogen, contains no RNA or DNA. The prize was widely seen as a vindication of Prusiner's research and methods.

Grew Up in Midwest

Prusiner was born on May 28, 1942, in Des Moines, Iowa, to Lawrence and Miriam Prusiner and named for his father's younger brother who died of Hodgkin's disease at age 24. In those World War II years, his father was drafted into the Navy shortly after Prusiner was born. The family moved to Boston so his father could attend officer training school. When he left for the South Pacific, his wife and son moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to live near her mother. In his autobiography for the Nobel Foundation, Prusiner wrote fondly of his maternal...