I suspect the world would be better if that percentage were even greater.
Scientists Create Synthetic Rogue Protein
California scientists have created a synthetic prion, a rogue protein that was used to infect mice with a brain destroying infection.
Prions are the cause of several fatal diseases, including BSE (bovine spongiform encephalitis) and CJG (Creutsfeldt-Jakob disease). It’s a nasty, nasty disease, which was chronicled in Richard Rhodes’ book Deadly Feasts. It’s not exactly comforting synthetic analogs of existing infectious prions have been synthesized in the laboratory. CJD is a disease with 100% fatality, and prions are immune to normal sterilization procedures with are effective against other infectious agents. Not good, not good.
Comment from Tom Duff
Time 8/2/2004 at 5:00 pm
It wasn’t known before this research was done whether prions, by themselves, could cause a disease or whether some other agent was required as well. This project settled the question. The more we know about these nasty molecules, the better.