Surachai Supattapone, M.D., Ph.D.

Javits Award
Image
photo of Surachai Supattapone
Institution
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Dr. Surachai Supattapone's research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of prions that cause fatal brain diseases in humans and other species. Dr. Supattapone's group is a pioneer in the novel discovery of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) as a universal co-factor required for prion infectivity. His project aims to develop a next-generation whole-genome CRISPR technique that could be leveraged to identify other co-factors and pathways that regulate the normal and infectious prions in living cells. This project's success could help close the knowledge gap in prion biology that has become relevant in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).