Author Archives: Enric Vidal
The prionic pilgrimage
On May 22-25, 2018 the international congress PRION 2018 took place in Santiago de Compostela, since its first edition in Paris in 2009, this congress brings together experts from all over the world in prions, it is a multidisciplinary meeting that gathers from doctors to veterinarians through biochemists, biologists and bioinformatics who study the structure of the molecules to give a holistic approach to a problem that is far from having a solution: the diseases caused by protein misfolding.
Prions in the desert
Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies involve a quite diverse spectrum of hosts, from domestic animals such as cows with mad cow disease (aka Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE), wild animals such as cervids with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and even people who may suffer from Creutzfeld Jackob Disease.
REDPRION is launched, a project to reinforce the control of human and animal prion diseases on both sides of the Pyrenees
A consortium consisting of five research centers and two companies from France and Spain launches the REDPRION cross-border Pyrenean project, worth € 2 million to develop innovative diagnostic tools and to identify therapeutic compounds for patients affected by a prion disease.
IRTA-CReSA signs up for ESCOLAB and Brain Awareness Week
ESCOLAB is an initiative of the Barcelona City Council to bring research closer to students of all ages with the aim of motivating them to face their professional trajectory towards research, innovation and technology.
IRTA-CReSA will investigate a possible relationship between cases of sporadic Creutzfeldt Jackob disease and prion diseases of goats and sheep
The State Program for the Promotion of Research, Scientific and Technical Excellence, State Subprogram of Knowledge Generation, within the framework of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016 of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MEIC) has resolved to estimate the partial (a 56%) funding of the project presented by IRTA-CReSA with the title: “Study of a possible causal relationship between cases of sporadic Creutzfeldt Jackob disease and Scrapie of small ruminants“. Reference AGL2017-88353-P.
The dog that never lost it in a crazy world
Tim was staring astonished to Josefina the cow who, with her eyes wide open, was running away, scared, towards the barn, because she had seen a little mouse crossing the yard. On her way, poor thing, she stumbled and fell. With difficulty she got up again to enter her hiding place. Joseph, the farmer, had also seen the scene and sad, It had been seven years milking her every morning, decided that the time had come for Josefina.
Of goats, sheep and tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is one of the diseases with which we work at IRTA-CReSA. We can do this because we have a level 3 biocontainment unit that allows us to work directly and safely with the infectious agents that cause tuberculosis. Zoonoses like this, diseases that affect animals and people, are also one of the reasons that explain the existence of a research center like ours.
Sane horses and unadapted prions
Time to talk about prions again, these enigmatic infectious agents that cause, among others, the mad cow disease.
Elucidation of the structure of an infectious prion
Prions, the agents that cause diseases such as Creutzfeltd Jakob disease in people or mad cow disease, are unconventional infectious agents. The main reason for this peculiarity is that, according to the most accepted theory nowadays, prions have no genetic material!
5th Iberian Congress on Prions, Barcelona
The next 28 and 29 November 2016, Barcelona takes over Lisbon and organizes the 5th Iberian Congress on prions. This annual meeting brings together researchers and professionals involved in the study of prion diseases both from the medical and veterinary fields in the Iberian Peninsula. It also features the participation of researchers focused on studying the structure of these peculiar proteins.
