Does the agent of scrapie replicate without nucleic acid? in Nature 214, 20 May 1967, pp. 764-766 (Alper) + Self-0replication and scrapie in Nature 215, 2 September 1967, pp. 1043-1044 (Griffith) + Viroids and Prions in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 79, No. 17, 1 September 1, 1982, pp. 5220-5225 (Prusiner) + Prions and neurodegenerative diseases in New England Journal of Medicine 317, 1987, pp. 1571-1581 (Prusiner)

1st Edition. FOUR VOLUME FIRST EDITIONS, THREE IN ORIGINAL WRAPS, OF THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING DISCOVERY OF THE PRION, A NEW BIOLOGICAL INFECTIOUS AGENT COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF PROTEIN. The prion has been implicated in a number of diseases, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy ('mad cow disease') and human degenerative neurological disorders like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Alpers Syndrome, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, fatal familial insomnia, and kuru. During the 1960s [and in the first two papers offered here] two London-based researchers, radiation biologists Tikvah Alper and mathematician John Stanley Griffith, developed the hypothesized in 1967 that transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are caused by proteins (first two papers). The third paper (Prusiner) describes research that demonstrates that this infectious agent is in fact a protein, not RNA (a viroid) or a virus. The fourth paper (also by Prusiner) presents a broad overview of the Prion and its diseases. Prusiner was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. CONDITION & DETAILS: The two Nature issues have faint library stamps on the cover and professionally rendered repair at the spines. The PNAS issue has the name of the prior owner in small letters on the cover. The New England Journal of Medicine volume has a library sticker inside the front cover and no spine markings whatsoever. Otherwise all items are in near fine condition.