Summation of Prion Research for Aspiring Scientists, 1998
(otherwise known as Prions for Posers)


Contents of this page:


Foreword 2001:

Hi everyone. I can't believe you want to read some of the trash I wrote to fake my way through college. This paper isn't bad though. It may be a little stuffy, but I did my best to make the whole prion thing make sense.

When I wrote this, the mad cow scare was just starting to wrap up in Britain. Very few people had heard of prions, and it was considered an emerging science. Fortunately for me, Dr. Stanley Prusiner is a scientist who writes as plainly as possible instead of being an over-educated professor who gauges his self-worth by how many consonants his sentences hold. (Don't count the ones in that last sentence.)

I am leaving this paper in its original format, although I may correct the typos I avoided seeing in the final draft. Please note - this was extensive research and it took me a long time to compile this paper. Please remember not to plagarize (steal) this work. Otherwise, learning is free. Enjoy.
~ Debra E. Lowe




TABLE OF CONTENTS


I. INTRODUCTION
II. WHAT IS A PRION?
A. STANLEY PRUSINER AND THE PRION
B. PRIONS DEFINED
C. THE PROTEIN STRUCTURE OF PRIONS
III. THE DISCOVERY OF PRIONS
A. SCRAPIE, KURU and CJD
B. PRUSINER'S RESEARCH
C. MAD COW CRISIS
IV. HOW PRIONS CAUSE DISEASE
A. ACQUIRING THE DISEASE
B. REPLICATION THROUGH CONFORMATION
C. DISTORTION AND DEATH
V. QUESTIONS AND CONTROVERSIES
A. ALTERNATE OPINIONS REGARDING PRIONS
B. APPLYING PRION KNOWLEDGE
C. POSSIBLE RESEARCH TOPICS
VI. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY





LIST OF GRAPHIC SUPPORT


Note: Clicking on any graphic will take you to the original site unless otherwise noted

  1. Stanley Prusiner, recipient of the Nobel Prize, 1997
  2. Suggested structure of a prion
  3. Protein bending: changing a normal prion into a rogue prion
  4. British sheep
  5. Kuru cases worldwids (graph)
  6. Slide of human brain infested with a TSE
  7. BSE cases in the United Kingdom (graph)
  8. Is the scrapie agent DNA or protein? (table)


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