Alliance to Develop Test for Prion Diseases
By Biotechdaily staff writers
Posted on 10 Jun 2002
The Swiss company Prionics AG (Zurich) and the Israeli start-up PrioSense (Jerusalem) have agreed to collaborate on the development of a live test for diseases caused by prions. The test is based on the recent discovery of disease-associated prion protein in the urine of both animals infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and humans infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). Posted on 10 Jun 2002
”Current diagnostic screening tests can only be used for post mortem diagnosis of the disease as they require brain tissue for analysis,” explained Dr. Ruth Gabizon, who is directing the research at PrioSense. "The new urine-based test provides reliable early indicators of the prion disease.”
This research initiative is based on a previous collaboration. In that project, the research unit led by Dr. Gabizon succeeded in demonstrating for the first time the existence of disease-associated prion protein in the urine of humans and cattle. PrioSense is a spinoff of Hadasit at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Related Links:
Prionics
PrioSense