Congratulations to Dr. Raymond Bujdoso and Dr. Alana Thackray who have been awarded a BBSRC Project Grant (£475,000) for their new prion research project into Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), an increasingly prevalent fatal transmissible prion disease that affects members of the cervidae family including deer, elk, moose and reindeer. CWD has been detected in cervids in the USA and Europe, and poses significant challenges not only to cervid health but also human health because of its unknown zoonotic potential. This new research project, which is an international collaboration between Cambridge University, Colorado State University and the Norwegian State Veterinary Service, will develop a new rapid cervid blood test for CWD and will model the zoonotic potential of cervid prions in human PrP transgenic Drosophila.
