Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Height, Weight, Religion, Net Worth, Age, Biography

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Daniel Carleton Gajdusek

Last Updated: 09 Sep, 2023 | Views: 322

Age: 85

Profession: Doctor

Other Profession(s): Physician, Medical Researcher

Famous For: Kuru research

Higher Education: M.D. from Harvard University

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Religion, Birthday, Age

Date of Birth

09 Sep, 1923 (85 Years 03 Months 3 Days)

Birth Country

United States

Birth State/Province

New York

Birth District

Yonkers

Birth Sign

Virgo

Nationalities

American, Hungarian

Died on

12 Dec, 2008

Cause of Death

Still Unknown

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Early life, Education, Career, Awards, Achievements, Controversy, Unknown Facts

About (Profile/Biography):

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, a well-known American physician and virologist, was born in1923, in Yonkers, New York. He was raised by immigrants from Slovakia. His groundbreaking study on prion disorders earned him the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Education

Gajdusek studied at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1943 with a bachelor's degree and in 1946 with a medical degree. At Boston Children's Hospital, he finished his paediatric residency, after which he started working as a research fellow in virology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Daniel Carleton - Discovery of Kuru

The National Institutes of Health sent Gajdusek to Papua New Guinea in 1957 to look into the kuru sickness that was plaguing the Fore population there. He found that the illness was brought on by an infectious agent he referred to as a "slow virus." He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research on kuru, which improved understanding of other prion illnesses like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Controversy

Later in life, Gajdusek experienced controversy. He was accused of sexually assaulting a little boy he had adopted from Micronesia in 1996. He entered a guilty plea and received a 19-month prison term. He retired to Europe after being freed, where he passed away on December 12, 2008.

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Legacy

Gajdusek's contributions to the science of virology and his identification of the cause of kuru have had a significant impact on medicine notwithstanding the controversy surrounding his personal life. A new generation of scientists has been motivated by his work to go on researching the secrets of the human brain and nervous system. His study on prion diseases has produced novel therapies and preventive measures.