A new agreement between IRTA and the Network Research Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED) of the Carlos III Health Institute will strengthen the use of the PRIOCAT laboratory, located in the IRTA-CReSA node of RLASB, to study prion diseases.
Working at PRIOCAT laboratory. Photo: IRTA-CReSA (CC BY-NC 2.0)
PRIOCAT is the only laboratory in Catalonia capable of working with these infectious agents with risk of transmission to humans. It is located in one of the two nodes of the RLASB, the Level 3 Biocontainment Unit of the Animal Health Research Center IRTA-CReSA.
One of the main tasks of PRIOCAT is the diagnosis of prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in ruminants by order of the Department of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries and the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia. In addition, it has a project of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness to study the relationship between scrapie, a fatal and degenerative disease that affects the nervous system of sheep and goats, with sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt Jackob disease in humans.
Now, with this new agreement with CIBERNED, we will work together to exchange knowledge and new techniques to study these diseases. In addition, this year a line of research is launched to evaluate the risk of atypical and emerging prions for public health, thanks to a project awarded by the Fundació La Marató de TV3 in the 2017 edition dedicated to infectious diseases. .