Conformations of viroids is the title of the poster which still decorates Detlev Riesner's office, although it dates back to 1976 when he presented it at a conference in Hamburg. "Stanley Prusiner was interested, I have a photograph," Detlev Riesner recalls. For the two young scientists, their encounter was the beginning of a collaboration that continues until today. "He had just returned from New Guinea and stood there with his long mane, asking me whether we could rule out viroids as causative agents of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease." This was a serious hypothesis in the 1970s when Prusiner had embarked on searching for such an agent. Riesner specialized in viroids, the small single-stranded circular RNAs, collaborating with their codiscoverer Heinz Sänger. Together Riesner and Prusiner proved that nucleic acids weren't present in the infectious material from CJD and related diseases and when Prusiner earned the Nobel Prize for his ...
Detlev Riesner
Detev Riesner From roots in academic research, Riesner has emerged as an advisor and busines angel with an enormous impact on NRW's biotech scene. By Joachim Pietzsch Conformations of viroids is the title of the poster which still decorates Detlev Riesner's office, although it dates back to 1976 when he presented it at a conference in Hamburg. "Stanley Prusiner was interested, I have a photograph," Detlev Riesner recalls. For the two young
Written byJoachim Pietzsch
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