Michael Alpers

Last updated

Michael Philip Alpers AO , FRS , FAA is an Australian medical researcher, and John Curtin distinguished Professor of International Health, at Curtin University. [1] [2]

Contents

Education

Alpers graduated from University of Adelaide with a B.Sc. and M.B.B.S. and from University of Cambridge with an M.A.

Career and research

After graduating, he commenced a career, ultimately resulting in investigating kuru, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. [3] [4] [5]

He is Honorary Senior Research Associate University College London. [6]

Alpers and his work are the main theme of Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery (2010).[ citation needed ] He is interviewed in The Genius And The Boys (2009).[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Carleton Gajdusek</span> American medical researcher and Nobel Prize laureate

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for work on the transmissibility of kuru, implying the existence of an infectious agent, which he named an 'unconventional virus'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Fenner</span> Australian virologist (1914–2010)

Frank John Fenner was an Australian scientist with a distinguished career in the field of virology. His two greatest achievements are cited as overseeing the eradication of smallpox, and the attempted control of Australia's rabbit plague through the introduction of Myxoma virus.

The Fore people live in the Okapa District of the Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 20,000 Fore who are separated by the Wanevinti Mountains into the North Fore and South Fore regions. Their main form of subsistence is slash-and-burn farming. The Fore language has three distinct dialects and is the southernmost member of the East Central Family, East New Guinea Highlands Stock, Trans–New Guinea phylum of Papuan languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research</span>

The Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNG IMR) is the principal institution conducting health research in Papua New Guinea with a focus on health problems affecting the country's population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Wurm</span> Australian linguist

Stephen Adolphe Wurm was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. David Buckingham</span> Australian chemist and cricketer (1930–2021)

Amyand David Buckingham born in Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia was a chemist, with primary expertise in chemical physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtin University Malaysia</span> University campus in Sarawak, Malaysia

Curtin University Malaysia is the Malaysian campus of Curtin University, a public university based in Australia. It is the university's largest campus outside of Australia with a total area of 1,200-hectare (3,000-acre) comprising academic and residential blocks. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in various fields of commerce, engineering, computational sciences, humanities and health sciences. It also offers foundational courses and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) among other higher degree by research programs. It is named after John Curtin, a prominent Prime Minister of Australia during World War II from 1941 to 1945.

Endocannibalism is a practice of cannibalism in one's own locality or community. In most cases this refers to the consumption of the remains of the deceased in a mortuary context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuru (disease)</span> Rare neurodegenerative disease caused by prions

Kuru is a rare, incurable, and fatal neurodegenerative disorder that was formerly common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Kuru is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) caused by the transmission of abnormally folded proteins (prions), which leads to symptoms such as tremors and loss of coordination from neurodegeneration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce William Stillman</span> Australian biochemist and cancer researcher

Bruce William Stillman is a biochemist and cancer researcher who has served as the Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) since 1994 and President since 2003. He also served as the Director of its NCI-designated Cancer Center for 25 years from 1992 to 2016. During his leadership, CSHL has been ranked as the No. 1 institution in molecular biology and genetics research by Thomson Reuters. Stillman's research focuses on how chromosomes are duplicated in human cells and in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae; the mechanisms that ensure accurate inheritance of genetic material from one generation to the next; and how missteps in this process lead to cancer. For his accomplishments, Stillman has received numerous awards, including the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize in 2004 and the 2010 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, both of which he shared with Thomas J. Kelly of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the 2019 Canada Gairdner International Award for biomedical research, which he shared with John Diffley.

Professor Samuel Frank Berkovic is an Australian neurologist and Laureate Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne and Director of the Epilepsy Research Centre at Austin Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Crabb</span> Australian scientist (born 1966)

Brendan Scott CrabbFASM is an Australian microbiologist, research scientist and director and chief executive officer of the Burnet Institute, based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Visvader</span> Australian academic

Jane Visvader is a scientist specialising in breast cancer research who works for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is the joint head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory with Geoff Lindeman.

Kliti Grice, is a chemist and geochemist known for her work in identifying geological and environmental causes for mass extinction events. Her research integrates geological information with data on molecular fossils and their stable carbon, hydrogen and sulfur isotopic compositions to reconstruct details of microbial, fungal and floral inhabitants of modern and ancient aquatic environments and biodiversity hot spots. This information expands our understanding of both the Earth's history and its current physical state, with implications ranging from energy and mineral resource exploration strategies to environmental sustainability encompassing climate dynamics and expected rates, durations and scale of our future planet's health. As one of the youngest women professors in Earth Sciences, she is the founding director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC) and is a Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.

The Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture of the Australian Academy of Science is awarded biennially to recognise exceptional research by Australian scientists in the physical sciences. Nominations can only be made by Academy Fellows.

Susan Wyber Serjeantson is an Australian geneticist and professor of genetics at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.

Colin William Binns is an Australian public health specialist. He is the John Curtin Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Curtin University and founder of the Curtin Health Service.

References

  1. "Staff Profile - Professor Michael Alpers".
  2. http://cms.riaustralia.org.au/science/people/healthcare_medicine/michael_alpers.jsp%5B%5D
  3. "Latest news".
  4. Stocklin, W. H. (2008). "My kuru adventure". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 363 (1510): 3666–3667. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.4031. ISSN   0962-8436. PMC   2735548 . PMID   18849275.
  5. "Michael Alpers (FRS), Kuru, and Papua New Guinea". Health and History. 14 (2): 26–45. 2012. doi:10.5401/healthhist.14.2.0026. ISSN   1442-1771. S2CID   142113962.
  6. "Iris Message".

Further reading