Calgary Prion Research Unit (CPRU)

The Calgary Prion Research Unit (CPRU) at the University of Calgary supports scientists affiliated with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute in their research on prion and prion-like diseases. Overarching goals are to study protein misfolding diseases in various systems (in vitro, cell culture, and animal models) to develop novel means to detect, prevent or treat human and animal neurodegenerative diseases.

CPRU is operated by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine with Dr. Schaetzl as the director, with core funding from the Alberta Prion Research Institute. It benefits from the interdisciplinary environment and diverse expertise covering prion vaccines and prion cell biology (Dr. Schaetzl), chronic wasting disease and prion-host cell interaction (Dr. Gilch), advanced amyloid imaging and analysis (Dr. Stys), transgenic mouse models (Dr. Jirik/CCCMG), non-traditional prion-like diseases (Dr. Tsutsui), and chaperone biology (Dr. Braun).