About the Authors

Chae Kim

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Tracy Haldiman

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Krystyna Surewicz

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Yvonne Cohen

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Wei Chen

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Janis Blevins

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Man-Sun Sy

Affiliation National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Mark Cohen

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Qingzhong Kong

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Glenn C. Telling

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

Witold K. Surewicz

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Jiri G. Safar

jiri.safar@case.edu

Affiliations National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: WKS JGS. Performed the experiments: CK TH YC WC MC. Analyzed the data: WKS JGS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KS JB M-SS QK GCT. Wrote the paper: JGS WKS.