Discussion Leaders:
Dates:
January 13-17, 2005
Reading Assignments:
Monday, January 13
Nobel Foundation web site, autobigraphy of Stanley Prusiner
"The Prion Diseases," by Stanley Prusiner, Scientific American, January, 1995, pp. 48-57.
Prusiner handout (print out and bring to class)
Wednesday January 15 (Submit question)
"Prions: on the trail of killer proteins"
Historical figures in the discovery of prion diseases
"Pathological Science," by Richard Rhodes, The New Yorker, December 1, 1997, pp. 54-59.
"NOBEL GAS: Sure, Stanley Prusiner deserves a prize--for his persistence, not for his prions." By Gary Taubes
Nobel Foundation web site, autobiography of Carleton Gajdusek
"Nobel Prize winner Gajducek admits child abuse," The Lancet, volume 349, March 1, 1997, p. 9052.
Friday, January 17 (Submit question)
"Deadly Enigma," Scientific American, December 1996.
"Tempest in a T-Bone?," Scientific American, August 12, 1996.
"Federal testing for mad cow disease a failure, Law Review editor says"
Editorial: "Beef against Oprah is a case of baloney," Tennessean, Wednesday, January 21, 1998, p. 10A.
Extra reading for those interested: Deadly Feasts, a very interesting and even exciting account of the work of Gajducek and Prusiner by Pulitzer-Prize winner Richard Rhodes. From Amazon.com I quote: "Synopsis - In a non-fiction narrative that reads like a medical thriller, Richard Rhodes follows virus hunters on three continents as they track the emergence of a deadly new brain disease that first kills cannibals in New Guinea, then cattle and young people in Britain and France."
Be prepared to discuss the following questions:
Wednesday, January 15
1. What is the most compelling evidence in support of the prion theory? What evidence is missing? Was Prusiner's prize premature?
2. Should anyone else have shared in Prusiner's prize? Who?
3. Should Gajducek's prize be revoked?
Friday, January 17
1. Was Prusiner's prize politically motivated?
2. What should have been done by the governments of Britain, the US, and other countries in response to the discovery of Mad Cow Disease?
3. What can/should be done now?
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Last updated 1/14/07.