Editing Stanley B. Prusiner (section)

==Prion: a heretical idea==
In his 1998 PNAS review article on Prions, [[Prusiner]] wrote:<ref name=prions1998/> "The idea that scrapie prions were composed of an amyloidogenic protein was truly heretical when it was introduced" (by [[Tikvah Alper]]<ref>{{citation |author=T. Alper |title=The exceptionally small size of the Scrapie agent |journal=Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications |year=1966 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=278–284 |doi=10.1016/0006-291X(66)90478-5|pmid=4957205 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |author1=T. Alper |author2=W.A. Cramp |author3=D.A. Haig |author4=M.C. Clarke |title=Does the agent of Scrapie replicate without nucleic acid? |journal=Nature  |date=1967 |volume=214 |issue=5090 |pages=764–766 |doi=10.1038/214764a0|pmid=4963878 |bibcode=1967Natur.214..764A }}</ref>).
Encephalopathy was a mysterious disease that attacks the brain, and leaves the brains of its victims full of holes.  Scientists did not know what pathogen or disease-causing organism that produced such pattern.  Prusiner and his co-workers suggested  "One scientific theory, viewed as heretical in that it seems to challenge the role of nucleic acids as the exclusive carriers of genetic information."  This theory suggested that this pathogen might be a "deadly variety of a normal protein that has the ability to amplify itself in the brain. The hypothetical protein is called a prion (pronounced PREE-on)."<ref name=prions1998>{{cite journal |author=Stanley Prusiner |title=Prions |date=November 10, 1998 |journal=PNAS|volume=95 |issue=23 |pages=13363–13383 |doi=10.1073/pnas.95.23.13363 |doi-access=free |pmid=9811807 |pmc=33918 |bibcode=1998PNAS...9513363P }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Heretical Theory On Brain Diseases Gains New Ground |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/08/science/heretical-theory-on-brain-diseases-gains-new-ground.html |date=October 8, 1991 |author=Sandra Blakeslee |journal=New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D. |url=https://www.bu.edu/amyloid/events/prusiner-bio/ |publisher=Boston University, Amyloidosis Center |access-date=August 25, 2023}}</ref>