Fri, 30 Jul 2004

Research Sheds Light on Mad Cow

More mad cow news - and this is fascinating stuff. It seems to confirm the bizarre supposition that eating a folded protein (prion) causes proteins in the consumer to fold themselves, or at least modifies them genetically to be more easily folded spontaneously.

California scientists create the first synthetic rogue protein and use it to give mice a mad cow-like infection. The work has been hailed as 'a renaissance in prion research,' but it is unleashing controversy over the cause of the disease.

(link) [Wired News]

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