National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center to receive up to $20 million in CDC grant funding for continued research into fatal neurodegenerative prion diseases in brain

The National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC) at Case Western Reserve University will receive up to $20 million in funding as part of a grant renewal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better understand how and why prion diseases––degenerative brain conditions found in both humans and animals—develop and spread.

New study reveals mechanism for how disease-spreading prions can jump from one species to another

In a new study, researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified the structure of protein fibrils linked to a hereditary form of human prion disease. This insight, they say, reveals the mechanism for how prions can jump between some animal species, while retaining a transmissibility barrier between other species.