Prions - Prusiner
and
his
associates
of
the
University
of
California
at
San
Francisco
have
discovered
an
organism
which
appears
to
contain
no
genetic
material
of
its
own.
This
organism,
called
the prion,
is
100
to
1000
times
smaller
than
the
smallest
organism,
and
would
thus
be
the
smallest
of
living
things.
The
existence
of
prions
is
at
present
speculative.
The
relationship
between
prions
and
some
diseases
is
based
only
6n
negative
evidence.
If
their
existence
is
established;
they
might
prove
to
be
a
new
form
of
life.
Prusiner
and
his
colleagues
discovered
the
prion
while
studying
scrapie,
a
fatal
disease,
of
the
nervous
system
of
sheep.
Index >>Viroids and Prions >>Prions
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