David Westaway

Key facts

• In 2006 he moved from the University of Toronto to Edmonton to become director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases; a university news story from January 2014 still names him director and professor of neurology.
• A university news story says he was renewed in April 2015 for seven years as Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Prion Disease, held since 2007, with work aimed at the chain of events behind sporadic prion and prion-like diseases.
• He was senior author of a 2018 PLoS Pathogens paper describing a new GSS mutation in mice that defines a precursor of the amyloid-forming 8 kDa prion protein fragment.
• His group reported in December 2022 that the proteases FAP and DPP4 cut the normal prion protein at its N-terminal end, and that the drug linagliptin lowered disease-associated prion protein in two infected mouse cell models; this is cell work only.
• A January 2025 review he wrote with A. R. Castle concludes that alpha cleavage of the prion protein is well supported as protective, the role of beta cleavage in prion disease is unresolved, and no protease has yet been shown to cut the protein in brain.
• He was a co-author of a January 2022 Science Translational Medicine study, led by Jiri Safar, finding fast replicating tau seeds made mostly of misfolded 4R tau in rapidly progressive Alzheimer disease brains.
• The October 2024 JAMA Neurology opinion by Carlo Condello, Westaway and Prusiner, arguing that Alzheimer and Parkinson disease fit the prion paradigm, lists him at the UCSF IND and UCSF Neurology.
• His Alberta lab grants acknowledged on recent papers include CIHR and the Alberta Prion Research Institute; he is also a middle author of an April 2026 prion vaccine study in a GSS mouse line led by Holger Wille.

Timeline

1. 2006Moves from the University of Toronto to direct the University of Alberta prion centre.
2. 2007Starts as Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Prion Disease.
3. 2014University news names him centre director and professor of neurology.
4. 2015Chair renewed for seven years.
5. 2018Senior author of PLoS Pathogens paper on a new GSS mutation in mice.
6. 2022Joins the UCSF IND, per search excerpt of the IND profile; Alberta directorship ends.
7. 2022PNAS paper on prion protein beta-cleavage by FAP and DPP4.
8. 2023Symposium at the University of Alberta celebrating his research career.
9. 2024JAMA Neurology opinion with Condello and Prusiner, UCSF affiliation.
10. 2025Review on prion protein cleavage, Alberta affiliation.
11. 2026Co-author of a prion vaccine paper in a GSS mouse line, Alberta affiliation.