Biography
Prince was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After graduating as valedictorian from Dixie College (St. George, Utah), he served a two-year mission in Brazil for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS Church) at age 19. Upon returning to the United States in 1969, Prince attended graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving a D.D.S. (valedictorian) in 1973 and a Ph.D in pathology in 1975. In 1975 he and his wife, JaLynn Rasmussen, moved to Washington D.C., for a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. After spending more than a decade at NIH and Johns Hopkins University, he co-founded Virion Systems, Inc. (VSI), a biotechnology company focused on the prevention and treatment of pediatric infectious diseases. Building on discoveries that Prince made as a doctoral student, VSI pioneered the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease in high-risk infants through the use of monoclonal antibody. (RSV is the primary cause of infant pneumonia throughout the world.) VSI's technologies were licensed to MedImmune, Inc., and the collaborative efforts of the two companies and other partners resulted in the approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of Synagis, a drug that is currently given to approximately a quarter-million high-risk infants throughout the world each year. Prince currently serves as president and CEO of VSI.
In 2009, Prince and his wife established the Madison House Foundation, named after their youngest son who is autistic, for the purpose of addressing the perplexing issues facing adults with autism, along with those facing family members, caregivers and society at large. Prince serves as vice president of the foundation.
Prince serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions: The board of directors of the Dialogue Foundation; the National Advisory Council of Dixie State College; the Montgomery College Foundation Board; the National Advisory Board, J. W. Marriott Library, University of Utah; and the National Advisory Council, Johns Hopkins University School of Education. In addition, he served as a founding member of the board of directors of the Constitutional Sources Project (www.consource.org) from 2005-2009.
In recognition of his lifetime achievements, Prince was inducted into the Dixie State College Hall of Fame in 1999.
Prince was one of several leading figures in Mormon studies interviewed for the PBS documentary The Mormons.
Read more about this topic: Gregory Prince
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