Current:Home > InvestKiller Proteins: The Science Of Prions-LoTradeCoin
Killer Proteins: The Science Of Prions
View Date:2024-12-23 21:03:46
Prions are biological anomalies – self-replicating, not-alive little particles that can misfold into an unstoppable juggernaut of fatal disease. Prions don't contain genes, and yet they make more of themselves. That has forced scientists to rethink the "central dogma" of molecular biology: that biological information is always passed on through genes.
The journey to discovering, describing, and ultimately understanding how prions work began with a medical mystery in a remote part of New Guinea in the 1950s. The indigenous Fore people were experiencing a horrific epidemic of rapid brain-wasting disease. The illness was claiming otherwise healthy people, often taking their lives within months of diagnosis. Solving the puzzle would help unlock one of the more remarkable discoveries in late-20th-century medicine, and introduce the world to a rare but potent new kind of pathogen.
For the first episode in a series of three about prion disease, Short Wave's Gabriel Spitzer shares the science behind these proteins with Emily Kwong, and explains why prions keep him awake at night.
Check out the other two stories in this series: Science Couldn't Save Her So She Became A Scientist and A Deeply Personal Race Against A Fatal Brain Disease.
This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Gisele Grayson, and fact-checked by Abe Levine. The audio engineer was Natasha Branch.
veryGood! (374)
Related
- Missing Ole Miss student declared legally dead as trial for man accused in his death looms
- College football Week 11 winners and losers: Michigan shows its muscle as Penn State flops
- European Union calls for an investigation into the massacre of nearly 100 civilians in Burkina Faso
- Suspect released in murder of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll
- American Idol’s Triston Harper, 16, Expecting a Baby With Wife Paris Reed
- Israel loses to Kosovo in Euro 2024 qualifying game
- Christian McCaffrey's record-tying TD streak ends at 17 games as 49ers rout Jaguars
- No. 1 Georgia deserves the glory after the Bulldogs smash No. 10 Mississippi
- 'Wanted' posters plastered around University of Rochester target Jewish faculty members
- Father of Liverpool star Luis Díaz released 12 days after being kidnapped in Colombia
Ranking
- Fantasy football waiver wire: 10 players to add for NFL Week 11
- College football Week 11 winners and losers: Michigan shows its muscle as Penn State flops
- Danica Roem breaks through in Virginia Senate by focusing on road rage and not only anti-trans hate
- The third of four men who escaped a Georgia jail in mid-October has been captured at an Augusta home
- What’s the secret to growing strong, healthy nails?
- Dubai Air Show opening as aviation soars following pandemic lockdowns, even as wars cloud horizon
- Man facing charges after car chase, shooting that wounded Pennsylvania officer
- Fire closes major highway in Los Angeles
Recommendation
-
Elena Rose has made hits for JLo, Becky G and more. Now she's stepping into the spotlight.
-
'Barbie' movie soundtrack earns 11 Grammy nominations, including Ryan Gosling's Ken song
-
Euphoria Producer Kevin Turen Dead at 44
-
A military jet crashes in eastern Myanmar. Ethnic resistance groups claim they shot it down
-
Biden EPA to charge first-ever ‘methane fee’ for drilling waste by oil and gas companies
-
AP Top 25 Takeaways: Alabama is a national title contender again; Michigan may have its next man
-
Michigan vs. Penn State score: Wolverines dominate Nittany Lions without Jim Harbaugh
-
This Week in Nairobi, Nations Gather for a Third Round of Talks on an International Plastics Treaty, Focusing on Its Scope and Ambition