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Prion-Detection System Patented
The Scientist 2004, 18(4):32
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One of the problems in detecting prions is that the infectious agent is just a conformational isomer of a normal "self" protein. Typical diagnostic approaches, such as looking for tell-tale antibodies or nucleic acids, therefore won't work. The successful approach exploits conformational differences between the two protein variants, says Jiri Safar of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. Safar and Stanley Prusiner, who won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of prions, recently received the latest in a series of patents for just such a system.
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