Colin L. Masters

Key facts

• Coauthor of the ANCJDR surveillance update to 31 December 2023 in Communicable Diseases Intelligence (vol 49, March 2025), listed at The Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, with Collins, Stehmann, Klug and McLean.
• That report records 651 domestic CSF specimens referred in 2023, 83 persons added to the register, and neuropathology in 53 percent of suspected prion deaths, with prospective surveillance since October 1993.
• Between 1979 and 1983 he coauthored foundational CJD papers with Gajdusek and Gibbs on worldwide occurrence and familial clustering, familial CJD and Alzheimer disease, Gerstmann-Straussler transmissions, and oral transmission of kuru, CJD and scrapie to primates.
• Worked at the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke from 1977 to 1981, joined the University of Melbourne in 1989 and became laureate professor of pathology.
• In 2024 to 2026 he appears on about 145 indexed papers and preprints, nearly all on Alzheimer disease biomarkers (plasma p-tau217, Abeta42/40, NfL, GFAP), amyloid PET and cohort analyses, with only one prion record.
• Recent diagnostic papers list him at the National Dementia Diagnostics Laboratory at The Florey, coauthoring with Steven Collins on CSF and plasma NfL and Alzheimer biomarkers, which overlaps with the CSF testing pathway the registry also uses.
• Last author of an April 2026 phase 2 placebo-controlled trial of S-adenosyl methionine in 63 people with Alzheimer disease that showed no disease-modifying effect, and sole author of a 2025 Lancet Neurology commentary on disclosure of preclinical Alzheimer disease.
• The Florey ANCJDR page lists 14-3-3 and RT-QuIC CSF testing, tissue biopsy, PRNP genetic testing and free brain-only autopsy, but names Collins, Stehmann and Holper as co-directors and does not list Masters.
• The registry received about 3.02 million AUD of federal funding over five years from April 2024; Masters is not quoted in that announcement.
• Honours include the Potamkin Prize (1990), King Faisal International Prize in Medicine (1997), Florey Medal (2002) and Officer of the Order of Australia (2017).

Timeline

1. 1979Ann Neurol paper with Gajdusek and Gibbs on worldwide CJD occurrence and familial clustering.
2. 1981Brain papers on familial CJD and Alzheimer disease, and on CJD transmissions from Gerstmann-Straussler syndrome.
3. 1989Moved to the University of Melbourne.
4. 1993ANCJDR established under Commonwealth contract.
5. 2017Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia.
6. 2024Florey announces about 3.02 million AUD federal funding over five years for the ANCJDR.
7. 2025Lancet Neurology commentary on disclosure of preclinical Alzheimer disease.
8. 2025ANCJDR surveillance update to 31 December 2023 published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence.
9. 2026Phase 2 SAMe trial in Alzheimer disease published, with Masters as last author.