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September 10, 2009

Prusiner lab prion discovery featured in New York Times

The Sept. 10, 2009 New York Times included an article on a new development in prion research, featuring a discovery from the laboratory of Nobel laureate Stanley B. Prusiner, MD, UCSF professor of neurology and director of the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, and scientists at the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Wildlife Research Center. The discovery also was featured in the Sept. 10 San Francisco Chronicle.

The scientists discovered that deer asymptomatic for a fatal brain condition known as chronic wasting disease excrete the infectious prions that cause the disease in their feces. The finding, they say, suggests a plausible explanation for transmission of the disease among deer and, possibly, elk and moose in the environment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/science/10brain.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=prion&st=cse

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/10/MNM119K9K0.DTL