We may have been overestimating the role of a pathological class of misfolded protein in neurodegenerative disease. Called ...

Many neurodegenerative diseases involve a common pattern of protein misfolding, aggregation, and toxicity. Though the identity of the actual polypeptide varies for each disease, the outcome converges ...

If you’re familiar with the word prion than you probably associate it with dysfunction and disease. Prions infamously cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, as well ...

Recent research led by the University of Alberta challenges the belief that mad cow disease is caused only by misfolded ...

Prions are biological anomalies – self-replicating, not-alive little particles that can misfold into an unstoppable juggernaut of fatal disease. Prions don't contain genes, and yet they make more of ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American It was probably only a matter of time until ...

Prions are the smallest and possibly the most dangerous of all infectious pathogens. They are also unique in that they contain no genetic material at all — just proteins. But as guest writer Steve ...

A mysterious neurological disease was killing women and children in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Patients in the final stages experienced uncontrollable outbursts of laughter, earning ...

Prions–the name comes from “proteinaceous infectious particle”–were big news in the 1980s, when it became clear that these proteins caused disease. But more than 30 years after they were discovered, ...

"Scrapie" is the old Scottish shepherds' name for a disease of their sheep which has been known for several centuries. It is the original example of a group of diseases, known as the "transmissible ...

People with the rare and fatal brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) show signs of the disease in their eyes, according to a new study. The study found evidence of prions — the infectious ...