QnAs with Susan L. Lindquist

Abstract

Prions defy molecular biology’s central dogma. Misfolded proteins that self-perpetuate, prions were first isolated in the early 1980s as the cause of a fatal sheep disease called scrapie. Since then, prions have been implicated in human neurodegenerative diseases, composing a rogue’s gallery of deadly disease agents. Susan Lindquist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, has found that prions may have a little-appreciated positive side. Lindquist casts these seeming biochemical misfits in a surprising evolutionary role: Her studies have revealed that prions might help cells adapt to a host of environmental pressures. Lindquist explains this still-contentious idea to PNAS readers.