William Prusoff

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William Herman Prusoff
Case Western Reserve
William H. Prusoff Foundation
Yale University

William Herman Prusoff (June 25, 1920 – April 3, 2011) was a pharmacologist who was an early innovator in antiviral drugs, developing

AIDS drugs, in the mid-1980s.[1]

Scientific career

William Prusoff attended the

postdoctoral training in the laboratory of professor Arnold Welch at Case Western Reserve University. After Welch was recruited by Yale to head the Medical School's pharmacology department, Prusoff was invited to join the same department as an assistant professor and was subsequently promoted to the rank of professor
. This relationship at Yale would span over the next 58 years, with William Prusoff becoming one of Yale's most well respected scientists and teachers.

Prusoff spent most of his career studying

scientific paradigm for antiviral drug
development.

In the late 1950s, William Prusoff synthesized one of the first

Cheng-Prusoff equation to calculate the absolute inhibition constant Ki.[2]

In the 1980s, while the

Doctors Without Borders and Yale students later lobbied Yale University and Bristol-Myers Squibb to make Zerit available at a low cost for the African market. Prusoff quickly joined the effort, even though it meant a loss of personal income. "We are not doing this to make money, we are interested in developing a compound that would be a benefit to society," he explained. The effort to make Zerit more affordable was a success: millions of people around the world benefited from Prusoff's research and humanitarian efforts.[3]


Though William Prusoff officially retired at age 70, he never stopped working and continued to be industrious. Until his death, his work as

neutron therapy
.

Prizes

Among his many accolades, Prusoff received the ASPET Award from the

endowed chair in his name and the Department of Pharmacology named one of its conference rooms after him. In addition, the International Society for Antiviral Research
established the William Prusoff Young Investigator Lecture Award.

Prusoff established the

Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism
. He dedicated his life to the service of others because he saw generosity and helping as a natural extension of the human condition.

References
  1. ^ Grimes, William (April 6, 2011). "W. H. Prusoff, Who Developed AIDS Drug, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  2. PMID 4202581
    .
  3. ^ Prusoff, William (March 19, 2001). "The Scientist's Story". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2001.

This article incorporates text from a scholarly publication published under a copyright license that allows anyone to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the materials in any form for any purpose: Cheng Y-C (2011) William H. Prusoff (1920–2011): Father of Antiviral Chemotherapy. PLoS Biol 9(11): e1001190. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001190 Please check the source for the exact licensing terms.

External links

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