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Prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and fatal familial insomnia are caused when healthy proteins misfold and aggregate (pictured), which triggers a cascade effect of more and more misfolded proteins. While researchers knew that the proteins were misfolded, it was much harder to tell into exactly what parts of the protein were involved in the misfolding and, ultimately, disease. New research published in Nature by scientists at the University of Alberta have created a detailed 3D map of these prion proteins. The secret to their findings was the use of antibodies and antibody fragments to reverse engineer the 3D structure of the area of the prion to which the antibodies bound. This may help researchers one day find ways to prevent the illness by preventing the protein misfolding.

Source: http://news.ualberta.ca/newsarticles/2013/july/3d-look-at-prions-may-help-find-cure-to-brain-diseases