Chris Pritsos was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1953. In 1954 he moved to Downey, CA. He attended Rio San Gabriel Elementary, East Junior High and graduated Downey High School in 1971. He played baseball for three years and enjoyed science and history classes. He received a fellowship to USC Medical School in the summer after graduation and trained with a biochemist at USC where he developed a love for research in the field of biochemistry. After high school, he studied at Occidental College and earned a Bachelors degree in Biology. He then went on to the University of Nevada where he earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1982 and married Karen Sertic, a graduate student.
In 1983 Chris received a postdoctoral fellowship to work at the Yale University Comprehensive Cancer Center in New Haven, CT where he worked for three years. He returned to Nevada in December of 1985 and was hired as a faculty member at the University of Nevada. Karen and Chris have two children, Jenna (20 years old, completing her junior year at UC Berkeley) and Evan (16 years old completing his sophomore year at Reed HS in Sparks, NV). Chris Pritsos has written several grants that have been funded for over seven million dollars. To his credit, he has written over sixty peer reviewed scientific publications and has made over 100 presentations at regional, national and international meetings.