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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Investigating the Spreading and Toxicity of Prion-like Proteins Using the Metazoan Model Organism C. elegans
Published on: January 8, 2015
Discovering the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in prion diseases
1Department of Pathology, Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of California, San Francisco, 94143-0511, USA. sdearmo@itsa.ucsf.edu
Abstract:
The purpose of my chapter in this issue of Neuroscience Reviews dedicated to Dr. Lawrence Eng is to summarize my contributions to understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in prion diseases. I explain that I was able to advance the field of prion disease neuropathology largely because of the foundation of neurochemistry and immunohistochemistry that I learned while working 5 years in Dr. Eng's laboratory. In my review, I relate how my Neuropathology Research Laboratory began as a collaboration with Dr. Stanley Prusiner 20 years ago that led from immunohistochemical staining of amyloid plaques in rodent and human brains using prion protein-specific antibodies to molecular evidence that the abnormal prion protein, PrP(Sc), is the cause of the clinically relevant neuropathological changes in animal and human prion diseases.
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