Jiri Safar, MD

Dr. Jiri G. Safar is director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC) and associate professor in the Departments of Pathology and Neurology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). After completing his residency, chief residency, and PhD training in biochemistry, he completed research fellowship in the laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), directed by D.C. Gajdusek (Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1976). In 1996, he took a position of a senior scientist at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, directed by Stanley B. Prusiner (Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1997) and associate professor at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). In 2008, Dr. Safar was recruited to continue his research on neurodegenerative diseases caused by prions and protein misfolding at CWRU. His extensive research has led to the discovery of previously unknown forms of prions and prion diseases; a better understanding of the conformation of prion proteins; the unraveling of the molecular mechanisms of prion strains; and the development of new methods for detection and differentiation of misfolded proteins and prions and other misfolded proteins. The focus of Dr. Safar's current research is on understanding the mechanism of replication of human prions and other misfolded proteins and elucidating molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer and prion diseases. Dr. Safar has authored 116 publications and holds 27 U.S. and international patents.

For further information: https://case.edu/medicine/pathology/faculty/jiri-safar.