Artificial Human Prions Created in the Lab

Brain-wasting disorders often evoke a sense of fear and panic from both researchers and the general public alike. For scientists, this sense of dread stems from gaps in the knowledge base of the full pathogenesis for these diseases and a deficiency in effective treatments. What is understood, however, is the cause of wasting disorders like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)—the proteinaceous infectious particles called prions. Now, investigators at Case Western Reserve University School of Me