] Since their discovery in 1982, prions have been mostly ] associated with deadly and devastating neurodegenerative ] disorders%u2014notably variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease ] and bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Nevertheless, some ] maintain that the mechanism by which prions change their ] shape and aggregate might be put to good use in ] biological systems. In back-to-back papers in the ] December 26 issue of Cell, researchers ascribe prion-like ] properties to an elegant mechanism involved in ] maintaining memory This is interesting...its also kinda cool that this came along right after I decided that I would probably write about prions for my grant writing course The Scientist :: Good news for prions? |