TRANSGENIC ANIMALS WITH INDUCIBLE PROTEIN EXPRESSION AND METHODS OF USE

摘要

The present invention comprises non-human transgenic animals for the study and diagnosis of prion-mediated pathologies, wherein the transgenic animal is characterized by a genome artificially altered to contain an exogenous PrP gene and an inducer sequence which effects expression of the exogenous PrP gene. These transgenic animals are characterized by their ability to develop symptoms of prion disease within 200 days or less after being inoculated with infectious prion preparations that would normally only infect a genetically diverse mammal. The invention also features a method for detecting prions in a sample by inoculating such transgenic animals with material suspected to be contaminated with prions.