HAMILTON (AP) — A scientific journal has named prion protein research at Rocky Mountain Laboratories as one of the most significant biomedical achievements of the past 10 years, the lab said Thursday.
The research from 1994 was highlighted in the November edition of the journal Nature Medicine, lab spokesman Ken Pekoc said.
Four other research projects have also been featured.
Rocky Mountain’s research showed that normal protein could be abnormally folded when exposed to abnormal protein infected with scrapie, a brain-wasting disease found in sheep.
The research is related to ongoing work on chronic wasting disease and other prion ailments, Pekoc said.
Dr. Byron Caughey, one of the researchers, called the recognition ‘‘astonishing. We are flabbergasted.”