Fellow

Professor Charles Weissman is Professor Emeritus at the University of Zurich and Senior Research Scientist at the Prion Unit at Imperial College. He has made many important contributions to the field of molecular biology since the 1960’s and is one of its most distinguished figures. His discoveries include fundamental insights into RNA phage replication, the development of site-directed mutagenesis, the use of reverse genetics, and key discoveries in retrovirus replication. More recently he has made seminal contributions to our understanding of prion diseases - indeed it was his laboratory that cloned the cDNA and gene encoding the prion protein. This work demonstrated that the prion protein was host, rather than virally encoded, and laid the foundation for many important studies. Charles Weissman is a universally respected biologist who has played a key role in the development of modern molecular biology.