Transmission of two subacute spongiform encephalopathies of man (Kuru and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) to New World monkeys.

Following Hadlow's suggestion (1959), Gadjusek was able to transmit Kuru and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease to primates through cerebral inoculations. Similarity in the clinical course of the diseases and in the cellular pathology of brain material suggested similar causative agents.

In 1976 Gajdusek shared the Nobel Prize with Baruch S. Blumberg "for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases."  See also 4729.1 and 13914.