Creating transgenic mice that express prion disease

Until now, researchers studying animal models of prion diseases have had to introduce a pathogenic protein into their study subjects.  In this report, however, engineers at University College London have created a humanized transgenic mouse that expresses prion proteins.  “To the best of our knowledge, the 117VV Tg30 mouse line is the first transgenic model expressing only mutant human PrP to show spontaneous generation of transmissible PrP assemblies that directly mirror those generated in an inherited prion disease in humans.”       MORE

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