Stanley B. Prusiner - Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he received his medical degree in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. After he earned his medical degree he set out to find the cause of the rare brain disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Through his research he discovered and named the a new kind of protein making particle called a prion (proteinaceous infectious particle). A prion is has no DNA so it cannot be called a protein. Prions are suspected to cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, mad cow disease, scrapie (fatal sheep disease), Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).