Robert Mercer recently awarded a research grant funded by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation.

Robert Mercer, an Instructor in the Harris lab, was recently awarded a research grant funded by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation. This two-year, $100,000 grant is entitled “Microenvironment mapping of the PrP^Sc Interactome”.

Prion diseases are fatal and currently untreatable neurodegenerative diseases of humans and animals. The central event underlying these diseases is the 3D conversion of the prion protein (PrP^C) to a pathogenic shape, denoted PrP^Sc. In attempts to elucidate its function, there have been multiple studies analyzing the interaction network, or interactome, of PrP^C. However, almost nothing is known about the interaction network of PrP^Sc. Here, we propose to examine the PrP^Sc interactome for the first time, providing a wealth of new targets for therapeutic intervention.