Fatal flaws : how a misfolded protein baffled scientists and changed the way we look at the brain / Jay Ingram.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ingram, Jay.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prions.

Prion diseases.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (293 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

How a misfolded protein baffled scientists and changed the way we look at the brain

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Discovered and identified as the cause of mad cow disease only three decades ago, the prion is a protein molecule that, when misshapen in the brain, becomes fatal. Novel and controversial, prions have provoked a scientific revolution. They challenge the very foundations of biology: A disease-causing entity with no genetic material at all? A molecule capable of infecting, multiplying, and killing? This book recounts the birth of prion science and the imaginative detective work scientists have undertaken as they struggle to find the answers to devastating brain diseases from mad cow and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's, and others. As in each of his best-selling books, Jay Ingram here makes complex scientific concepts accessible and shows how little-known events may have profound significance. He describes the development of prion science as a rough-and-tumble affair, with rivals, eccentrics, interfering governments, and brilliantly creative people all playing salient roles. Weaving biology, medicine, human tragedy, discovery, and bitter scientific competition into his account, he reveals the stunning potential of prion science, whose discoveries may unlock the answers to some of humankind's most destructive diseases"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The mystery of kuru : a disease like no other

Barflies and flatworms : how speculation and pure chance advance a new science

Cannibalism : an answer guaranteed to stir things up

Igor and Bill : the discoveries that bring kuru to world attention

The life of a cell : a miraculous, and often precarious, complexity

The death of a cell : by subterfuge, piracy, or out-and-out assault

When is a virus not a virus? : when a disease-causing agent reproduces without genes

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease : waking up to the potential of a devastating affliction

Magnificent molecules : the proteins that make life possible

Protein origami : building the gothic cathedrals of life

Stanley Prusiner's Heresy : an infectious agent that's a protein and nothing but

An infectious idea : the campaign for the minds of researchers

A portrait of the prion : and the experiments that point to their role in the human brain

Mad cow disease : the uncertain ground where politics and science intersect

Mad cow in humans : no barrier after all

The Americas : mad mink, then cows

Into the wild : deer, elk, moose, and caribou

Origins : attempting to find where prions come from

Cats but not dogs : when prions jump the species barrier

Alzheimer's disease : plaques and tangles but so far no prions

Parkinson's disease : looking more and more like a prion disease

Lou Gehrig's disease : the emerging picture of a prion-like process in ALS

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy : the athletes' plague

And in the end...

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781299284104

1299284108

9780300195187

0300195184

OCLC:

847625197