1.   Because this recipe does not contain any cellular material, it is a clear demonstration that proteins alone can cause the conversion.

2.   A misshaped protein can cause damage or disease.

3.   But how did Prusiner demonstrate that misfolded proteins could cause disease?

4.   Dr. Rohwer, however, says that there is no reason to abandon science as we know it until there is proof that a prion protein can cause disease.

5.   In CF patients, defective CFTR protein causes a salt buildup, leading to an abnormally thick mucus, infection, inflammation and progressive lung damage.

6.   In people suffering from leprosy infections, the excess protein causes painful skin nodules and fever.

7.   Many scientists were highly skeptical of the finding because they did not believe a protein could cause disease if it had no DNA or RNA to direct its reproduction.

8.   Milk protein can cause serious reactions in people who are allergic to milk products.

9.   Prusiner has pursued his hypothesis that degenerative brain diseases like scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans are caused by proteins.

10.   Scott works with Stanley Prusiner, who won a Nobel prize for discovering that rogue proteins cause BSE-type diseases.