Ernst Sträussler (June 17, 1872, Ungarisch-Hradisch – July 11, 1959, Vienna) was an Austrian neuropathologist born in the Moravian city of Ungarisch-Hradisch.
In 1895 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Vienna, and afterwards worked at the psychiatric clinic of Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857–1940). In 1907 he was habilitated for psychiatry and neurology in Prague, where in 1915 he attained the title of professor extraordinary. In 1919 he returned to Vienna.[1]
Sträussler is remembered for his work in forensic psychiatry, as well as his research involving the histopathology of the central nervous system.[1] With neurologist Georg Koskinas (1885–1975) he performed important studies involving malaria inoculations as a type of therapy for progressive general paresis.[2]
In 1936 with neurologists Josef Gerstmann (1887–1969) and Ilya Scheinker (1902–1954), he described a rare prion disease that is usually regarded as a variant of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Today this condition is known as Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome (GSS).[3]