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has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1997, in two equal parts, to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and to the campaign’s coordinator Jody Williams for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines. There are at present probably over one hundred million anti-personnel mines scattered over large areas…

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In the course of 1991, several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals began simultaneously to discuss the necessity of coordinating initiatives and calls for a ban on antipersonnel landmines. Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation came together in October 1992 to formalize…

6. This microscopic picture shows a histological section from a prion-infected brain. (1) Vacuoles that are formed as a result of neuronal cell death, results in a sponge-like appearance of the brain.  

All known prion diseases are fatal. Since the immune system does not recognize prions as foreign, no natural protection develops. Scrapie in sheep was first described during the18th century. It has been transmitted to other animals such as mink and cats, and more recently to cows (mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE) through…

  Presentation Speech by Professor Ralf F. Pettersson of the Nobel Committee at , December 10, 1997. Translation of the Swedish text. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Stanley B. Prusiner for his discovery of prions – a new biological principle…

Scientific Advisors: Professors at the Karolinska Institute Krister Kristensson, Neuropathology, Ralf Pettersson, Molecular Biology Bengt Winblad, Geriatrics, Nils Ringertz, Medical Cell Genetics and Secretary of the Nobel Assembly. References: Stanley B Prusiner, The Prion Diseases, Scientific American 272, 30-37 (1995) A.Aguzzi, Prion research: the next frontier. Nature 389, 795-798 (1997). K Kristensson and B. Winblad,…

 PrPc   The prion protein exists in two forms. The normal, innocuous protein (PrPc) can change its shape to a harmful, disease-causing form (PrPSc). The conversion from PrPc to PrPSc then proceeds via a chain-reaction. When enough PrPSc proteins have been made they form long filamentous aggregates that gradually damage neuronal tissue. The harmful PrPSc…