1.   This action of the mutant protein is by contrast with the recently established tumour suppressor activity of the wild type protein.

2.   This mutant protein was then expressed and compared as a DNA-PK substrate with wild-type Jun-Core protein.

3.   Classic CJD arises spontaneously in individual patients due to a mutant protein which builds up in the brain, causing sponge-like holes in the brain.

4.   If the mutant gene is churning out mutant proteins, then each four-ribbon tangle likely has a mutant among its strands.

5.   And when researchers put copies of the full-length mutant protein into skin cells in a lab, the copies clumped up and killed the cells.

6.   Brown said he is interested in the possibility that the mutant protein clumps together abnormally, somehow poisoning nerve cells.

7.   Elliott said even if the tests were made more effective, it would be difficult to provide such people with dairy products free of the mutant protein gene.

8.   Instead, she and other scientists are trying to develop substances to stop the mutant protein from being so sticky-fingered, she said.

9.   Often, ordinary genes turn into killers when they develop glitches in their code that make them churn out dangerously mutant proteins.