Rogue Proteins
Tracking the infectious, slow-moving prions that cause diseases like mad cow—and possibly also Alzheimer’s July–August 2012
Five or six years ago, when I reported more frequently about prion diseases than I now do, a Canadian wildlife scientist told me about a looming threat involving chronic wasting disease in deer.
Scientists studying CWD, the deer equivalent of mad cow, were worried the disease would spread north, making its way into caribou herds. The potential for decimation of caribou populations was…