5. In neurons infected with the prion protein, more and more PrPSc will gradually be produced forming larger fibrillar aggregates. When a critical level of PrPSc has accumulated, the neurons die, resulting in large vacuoles. The affected brain regions become sponge-like in appearance, hence the name spongiform encephalopathies, to describe all prion diseases.  

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English Presentation Speech by Professor Sten Grillner of the , December 10, 2004. Professor Sten Grillner delivering the Presentation Speech for the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, We perceive the world through our senses – we enjoy the…

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4. In hereditary forms of prion diseases, a genetic change (a mutation represented by the red dot) in one of the two genes encoding PrPc, may result in a slightly altered structure of the PrPc-protein. The mutation makes it easier for PrPc to change its conformation into PrPSc, initating a chain reaction that will result…

Life and discoveries of Santiago Ramón y Cajal by Marina Bentivoglio This article was published on 20 April 1998. Biographical sketch was born in May 1852 in the village of Petilla, in the region of Aragon in northeast Spain. His father was at that time the village surgeon (later on, in 1870, his father was…

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An animation illustrating the discovery the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shown during the press conference on October 6, 1997 at Karolinska Institutet, is presented here. The latter part of the presentation contains only images and text. This is a 2.7 Mb Shockwave animation. To download the Shockwave player, click on the icon…

Memories of my early childhood are clouded with uncertainties because I was essentially separated from my parents since the early age of seven. I was born in Shanghai, China on April 6, 1920. My father had come there from Vienna, Austria after earning doctorates in law and business. My mother, born Renée Tapernoux, had arrived…