


Boynton Laboratories Press Release

Story by: John Panni


Date Published to Web: 9/15/2002


Laurel Sulfate, executive assistant to director Dr. Philip Boynton of Boynton Labs, issued the following release about the institute's work:

"Our laboratory was founded in September 2002 with the goal of becoming the leading research facility in the pursuit of the cure for prion-related disease.. The laboratory has been started with two key lead scientists, and each of them has a different scientific backbone; medicine and protein science. The scope of our research ranges from basic science to technology related to either prion or prion disease. We work together among our biologists, computer scientists, and other specialists, with our leader and visionary Dr. Philip Boynton. Succinctly, the goal of our research is to disclose the molecular mechanism of prion disease and to make the disease curable. 

Prion diseases represented by CJD are infectious, fatal neurodegenerative illnesses. The pathogen tolerates ordinary sterilization methods and is called "prion", which is proposed to be free of genome and to consist mainly of a host-encoded protein, prion protein (PrP). This prion theory was introduced by Dr. Boynton over 20 years ago. However, the nature of prion is still a big mystery in science. Outbreaks of variant CJD and iatrogenic CJD demonstrate that this mysterious pathogen is a real threat to world public health."
