About Daniel Carleton Gajdusek
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'. In 1996, Gajdusek was charged with child molestation and, after being convicted, spent 12 months in prison before entering a self-imposed exile in Europe, where he died a decade later. Despite Gajdusek openly admitting to molesting boys and his approval of incest, he still received support from peers advocating for clemency who felt his crimes were lessened by his scientific contributions. Gajdusek provided the first medical description of this unique neurological disorder, which was miscast in the popular press as the "laughing sickness" because some patients displayed risus sardonicus as a symptom. In the 2000s, Gajdusek was asked when the hypothesis of cannibalism as a vehicle to spread kuru was first envisaged. Subsequently, additional human agents belonging to the same group were discovered. These infectious agents were later discovered to be misfolded proteins, or prions.
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