This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(February 2008) |
Gregory Prince | |
---|---|
Born | 1948 (age 74–75) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Researcher, businessman, and historian |
Gregory Antone Prince (born 1948) is an American pathology researcher, businessman, author, social critic, and historian of the Latter Day Saint movement. [1]
Prince was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After graduating as valedictorian from Dixie College (St. George, Utah), he served a two-year mission in Brazil for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) at age 19. [2] Upon returning to the United States in 1969, Prince attended graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving a D.D.S. (valedictorian) in 1973 and a Ph.D. in pathology in 1975. In 1975 he and his wife, JaLynn Rasmussen, moved to Washington D.C., for a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. After spending more than a decade at NIH and Johns Hopkins University, he co-founded Virion Systems, Inc. (VSI), a biotechnology company focused on the prevention and treatment of pediatric infectious diseases. Building on discoveries that Prince made as a doctoral student, VSI pioneered the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease in high-risk infants through the use of monoclonal antibody. (RSV is the primary cause of infant pneumonia throughout the world.) VSI's technologies were licensed to MedImmune, Inc., and the collaborative efforts of the two companies and other partners resulted in the approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of Synagis, a drug that is currently given to approximately a quarter-million high-risk infants throughout the world each year. In 2020, Prince became CEO of Soft Cell Biological Research, Inc. and its subsidiary company, Soft Cell Labs, Inc. Both labs focus on the role of L-form bacteria (bacteria that shed their cell walls and thus become capable of evading the immune system) in chronic human diseases.
In 2008, Prince and his wife established the Madison House Autism Foundation, named after their youngest son who is autistic, for the purpose of addressing the perplexing issues facing adults with autism, along with those facing family members, caregivers and society at large.
Prince serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions including the National Advisory Council, Utah Tech University; the Dean's Advisory Council, University of Utah School of Dentistry; and the Board of Governors, Wesley Theological Seminary.
In the 2010s, Prince began to call for a better understanding, within the views common among Latter-day Saints, of certain causal relationships between biology and sexual orientation. [3] [4]
In recognition of his lifetime achievements, Prince was inducted into the Dixie State College Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2012 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by the same institution. In 2013 he was named Alumnus of the Year of the UCLA School of Dentistry, and in 2017 he was given the Distinguished Service Award by Utah State University.
Prince was one of several leading figures in Mormon studies interviewed for the PBS documentary The Mormons. [2] He lives with his family in Potomac, Maryland.
Prince is the author of over 150 scientific publications in the field of infectious diseases, the majority dealing with RSV. He has also published several articles on religious history and theology, as well as five books in the same field: Having Authority: The Origins and Development of Priesthood During the Ministry of Joseph Smith (1993); Power from On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (1995); David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (2005), co-authored with William Robert Wright; Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History (2016); and Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences (2019). The McKay book was the recipient of four prestigious awards, and the Arrington book received the Evans Biography Award. In 2023, he was given the Leonard J. Arrington Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Mormon History Association, the highest award given by that organization.
The following is a partial list of published scientific articles in which Prince was a lead author:
The following is a list of Prince's books and articles relating to Mormonism.
Defective interfering particles (DIPs), also known as defective interfering viruses, are spontaneously generated virus mutants in which a critical portion of the particle's genome has been lost due to defective replication or non-homologous recombination. The mechanism of their formation is presumed to be as a result of template-switching during replication of the viral genome, although non-replicative mechanisms involving direct ligation of genomic RNA fragments have also been proposed. DIPs are derived from and associated with their parent virus, and particles are classed as DIPs if they are rendered non-infectious due to at least one essential gene of the virus being lost or severely damaged as a result of the defection. A DIP can usually still penetrate host cells, but requires another fully functional virus particle to co-infect a cell with it, in order to provide the lost factors.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also called human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) and human orthopneumovirus, is a common, contagious virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract. It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. Its name is derived from the large cells known as syncytia that form when infected cells fuse.
Human metapneumovirus is a negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family Pneumoviridae and is closely related to the Avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) subgroup C. It was isolated for the first time in 2001 in the Netherlands by using the RAP-PCR technique for identification of unknown viruses growing in cultured cells. As of 2016, it was the second most common cause of acute respiratory tract illness in otherwise-healthy children under the age of 5 in large a US outpatient clinic.
Human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs) are the viruses that cause human parainfluenza. HPIVs are a paraphyletic group of four distinct single-stranded RNA viruses belonging to the Paramyxoviridae family. These viruses are closely associated with both human and veterinary disease. Virions are approximately 150–250 nm in size and contain negative sense RNA with a genome encompassing about 15,000 nucleotides.
Viral pneumonia is a pneumonia caused by a virus. Pneumonia is an infection that causes inflammation in one or both of the lungs. The pulmonary alveoli fill with fluid or pus making it difficult to breathe. Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. Viruses are the most common cause of pneumonia in children, while in adults bacteria are a more common cause.
Palivizumab, sold under the brand name Synagis, is a monoclonal antibody produced by recombinant DNA technology used to prevent severe disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. It is recommended for infants at high-risk for RSV due to conditions such as prematurity or other medical problems including heart or lung diseases.
Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), sometimes less precisely called immune enhancement or disease enhancement, is a phenomenon in which binding of a virus to suboptimal antibodies enhances its entry into host cells, followed by its replication. The suboptimal antibodies can result from natural infection or from vaccination. ADE may cause enhanced respiratory disease, but is not limited to respiratory disease. It has been observed in HIV, RSV virus and Dengue virus and is monitored for in vaccine development.
The tawny-bellied cotton rat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found in Mexico and in the US states of Arizona and New Mexico.
Respiratory syncytial virus G protein is a glycoprotein produced by respiratory syncytial virus. Some features of the G protein suggest it could be important to respiratory syncytial virus vaccine or antiviral drug target design.
Pneumoviridae is a family of negative-strand RNA viruses in the order Mononegavirales. Humans, cattle, and rodents serve as natural hosts. Respiratory tract infections are associated with member viruses such as human respiratory syncytial virus. There are five species in the family which are divided between the genera Metapneumovirus and Orthopneumovirus. The family used to be considered as a sub-family of Paramyxoviridae, but has been reclassified as of 2016.
The genus Orthopneumovirus consists of pathogens that target the upper respiratory tract within their specific hosts. Every orthopneumovirus is characterized as host-specific, and has a range of diseases involved with respiratory illness. Orthopneumoviruses can cause diseases that range from a less-severe upper-respiratory illness to severe bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Orthopneumoviruses are found among sheep, cows, and most importantly humans. In humans, the orthopneumovirus that specifically impacts infants and small children is known as human respiratory syncytial virus.
Brian R. Murphy is an American virologist and former co-chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Presatovir (GS-5806) is an antiviral drug which was developed as a treatment for respiratory syncytial virus. It acts as a fusion inhibitor, and has shown promising results in Phase II clinical trials.
Lumicitabine (ALS-8176) is an antiviral drug which was developed as a treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV). It acts as an RNA polymerase inhibitor. While it showed promise in early clinical trials, poor results in Phase IIb trials led to it being discontinued from development for treatment of RSV. Research continues to determine whether it may be useful for the treatment of diseases caused by other RNA viruses, and it has been found to show activity against Nipah virus.
A respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, or RSV vaccine, is a vaccine that protects against respiratory syncytial virus. RSV affects an estimated 64 million people and causes 160,000 deaths worldwide each year.
Jason S. McLellan is a structural biologist, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin who specializes in understanding the structure and function of viral proteins, including those of coronaviruses. His research focuses on applying structural information to the rational design of vaccines and other therapies for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). McLellan and his team collaborated with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center to design a stabilized version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which biotechnology company Moderna used as the basis for the vaccine mRNA-1273, the first COVID-19 vaccine candidate to enter phase I clinical trials in the U.S. At least three other vaccines use this modified spike protein: those from Pfizer and BioNTech; Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals; and Novavax.
Viral interference, also known as superinfection resistance, is the inhibition of viral reproduction caused by previous exposure of cells to another virus. The exact mechanism for viral interference is unknown. Factors that have been implicated are the generation of interferons by infected cells, and the occupation or down-modulation of cellular receptors.
Anna Banerji M.D., O. Ont. is an academic, a Toronto infectious disease doctor, tropical disease specialist, pediatrician, public health specialist and an activist. She is the founder and chair of both the North American Refugee Health Conference in Canada, the Indigenous Health Conference and the co-founder of the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers. She was awarded the Dr Peter Bryce Henderson for her advocacy for Indigenous children.
Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) is pneumovirus closely related to human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that is a common cause of respiratory disease in cattle, particularly calves. It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that replicates in the cytoplasm of the cell. Similarly to other single-stranded RNA viruses, the genome of BRSV has a high mutation rate, which results in great antigenetic variation. Thus, BRSV can be split into four different subgroups based on antigen expression.
Clesrovimab (MK-1654) is a fully human monoclonal antibody designed to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. Developed by Merck, it is in a phase III trial as of 2023. It works differently than nirsevimab.