Various aberrant protein forms are the subject of intense research. It is not easy to probe their structures, but studies that have done so provide telling information about their biological properties. One or the most intriguing issues in biology isthe occasional conversion of proteins from their intricately folded functional forms into thread-like molecular aggregates. These transformations into an alternative form of protein structure are of much more than academic interest -- such aggregates arelinked to some of the most feared diseases of the modern era, and to the previously heretical idea that transmission of genetic information can occur without the involvement of nucleic acids. Three reports in this issue provide provocative data that illuminate the structures of these types of aggregate, and suggest how such structures might explain their extraordinary properties.
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