Welcome to the Prusiner Laboratory

We are a world-class research facility focused on understanding neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding. We are part of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. Our primary focus is on prion diseases (e.g., Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease"), with the aim of understanding the biological basis of these diseases, developing effective diagnostics and therapeutics, and improving patient and food safety by inactivating prions.