PRNP and human prion disease: Prion protein (PrP) is a cell-surface glycoprotein implicated in the pathogenesis of a range of neurodegenerative disorders collectively termed transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows, and chronic wasting disease in deer [1,2,3,4].