Prion disease usually happens in elderly people. It is neurodegenerative disease. It is disease of protein misfolding, which is its relevance to Alzheimers, Parkinson's, etc.
Dr. Corinne Lasmezas is on the scientific advisory board of Anavex. She is a world expert on prion dieases. So why is she on Anavex's board? She describes Alzheimers, and the like, as protein misfolding diseases. The MAM (connection btw mito and ER where proteins get folded, or misfolded). Anavex's sigma 1 drugs target the MAM so proper folding is preserved. This is pertinent for prion disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
You can google Dr Lasmezas' research and watch her Ted Talks. Here's her bio from Anavex website:
Corinne Lasmézas, DVM, PhD
A member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Professor at The Scripps Research Institute for the past 10 years and frequent TED Speaker, Dr. Lasmézas is an internationally recognized expert in the field of neurodegenerative diseases with a focus now on studying the mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Since her appointment at Scripps in 2005, Dr. Lasmézas has focused on how misfolded proteins lead to neuronal dysfunction and loss in diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and prion diseases. Additionally, Dr. Lasmézas is a reviewer for national and private funding agencies worldwide, including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the UK Medical Research Council, and an advisor for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). She has published more than 60 original scientific papers. Earlier in her career, Dr. Lasmézas’ research provided the first experimental evidence that the prion disease “mad cow disease” had been transmitted to humans, causing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This fatal disease belongs to the same group of age-related neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer and Parkinson’s diseases, caused by aggregates of misfolded proteins. At the peak of the mad cow crisis, Dr. Lasmézas became an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as several governmental and public health committees. Dr. Lasmézas holds a PhD in Neurosciences from the University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris and obtained her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and Diploma of Aeronautic and Space Medicine from the University of Toulouse, France.
