A woman and her husband completely changed career paths to study a deadly disease that killed her mother she learned she inherited. Shortly after, Vallahb learned that her death was caused by an extremely rare genetic disease known as fatal familial insomnia (FFI.) Caused by a brain abnormality similar to mad cow disease, FFI patients suffer a months-long descent into a dementia-like state as the brain loses its ability to fall asleep. “There’s this one protein that’s sort of at the heart of this disease, the prion protein,” Vallabh said. In FFI patients, the abnormal prions attack the thalamus, the center of our brain which controls consciousness, sight and sleep.

Source: Fox News September 22, 2017 13:30 UTC