Posted by Randal on August 28, 2002, at 15:08:44
In reply to Re: Protein Folding and Prions » Randal, posted by IsoM on August 26, 2002, at 0:41:42
Yeah, the Prusiner/prion story is an amazing one, and it's great that he was vindicated. Very few believed his ideas at first--they just didn't make sense at the time.
You know, that whole story would make a fantastic movie--certainly better than most of what's out there. Strong personalities, a medical mystery, a Nobel prize, international panic (BSE)--I'm surprised nobody has made one yet.
(Actually there are two prion Nobel prizes--the first was Gajdusek's 1976 prize for his work showing that the prion disease kuru is spread by cannibalism. If this were part of such a movie, and a subplot included his more recent conviction for pedophilia...that would add a tragic twist to an already bizarre story)
It sounds like you might really appreciate the "Toxic Proteins in Neurodegenerative Disease" article. It's a bit dense but very complete. Here's a link to try (I doubt you can get this for free but probably your friend can):
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/296/5575/1991
> I followed Dr. Stanley Prusiner's initial ideas about the causes of diseases like kuru, CJD, & scapie with interest when I first read about it in the early 90s. I remember how his ideas about prions was discounted by some in the scientific community. I'm glad he won the recognition & credit he deserved. It was his ideas about prions that first sparked my interest in protein folding. Interesting now that prions aren't all thought to be aberrant, but some are thought to have a purpose. Things are rarely as simple & clearcut as they may appear at first.
>
> If I have difficulty in getting hold of any of the articles you mention (thanks for the links), I'm on good terms with the head of the biology department at the nearby u. & she'd help me get them. I knew (but forgot) that part of the polypeptide chain can already be folded while part of it is still coming off the ribosome.
poster:Randal
thread:111261
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020821/msgs/118062.html