Prions are one of nature’s cruelest tricks.

Proteins are chains of amino acids that need to fold in very specific ways – a process that does not always work as intended. Your body is pretty good at correcting these errors – but every so often, a prion emerges.

This isn’t just a crooked, non-functional protein. It’s a gnarly shape that shares instructions for how it got that way, while resisting the body’s clean-up mechanisms. As these instructions spread through the brain, the result is rapid, progressive degeneration and, ultimately, death.