Distinguished medical researcher Professor Michael Alpers has died

Professor Michael Alpers, AO, CSM, FRS, FAA was an Australian medical researcher, and John Curtin Distinguished Professor of International Health, at Curtin University. He was also an Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL. He was particularly known for his groundbreaking work on the prion disease kuru among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.  

Born in Australia, Professor Alpers graduated from the University of Adelaide with both a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) before earning a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. His interest and commitment to tackling infectious diseases has spanned 60 years, with his most notable contribution, his research on kuru, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder. 

Collaborating with Nobel laureate Daniel Carleton Gajdusek in the 1960s, Professor Alpers played a crucial role in demonstrating the experimental transmissibility of kuru. He worked for many years in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea to study the effects of the disease first-hand. Professor Alpers established that kuru was transmitted at mortuary feasts. This research paved the way for our understanding of infectious proteins, known as prions which cause diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.  

Professor Alpers' work extended well beyond kuru and he an internationally renowned expert on tropical medicine from 1977-2000 Professor Alpers was director of the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, which became a hub for studying and testing vaccines for various infectious diseases, including malaria and pneumonia.  

His dedication and contributions to medical science earned him numerous accolades. In 2005, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, and in 2008, he was honoured with the Companion of the Papua New Guinean Order of the Star of Melanesia. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science. 

Professor John Collinge, Director of the MRC Prion Unit and Director of the NHS National Prion Clinic at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, said: “Michael was not only a brilliant medical researcher but also a compassionate and dedicated mentor and friend to many.  His death is a great loss to us at the MRC Prion Unit at UCL and the wider scientific community who will remember him for his remarkable intellect, kindness, and unwavering dedication to science and humanity.”