Richard A. Prusiner

Richard A. Prusiner is a neuroscientist renowned for discovering prions—infectious proteins that can cause brain diseases like mad cow disease. Unlike traditional pathogens such as bacteria or viruses, prions are misfolded proteins that can induce normal proteins to also become misfolded, leading to brain damage. His groundbreaking work, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1997, transformed our understanding of infectious agents and protein biology, highlighting that proteins alone can be infectious and cause devastating neurodegenerative diseases.