The Generative Brain

Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach (MNPRO), University of Minnesota

The Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach (MNPRO) is a research centre in the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. The formal name is confirmed by the affiliation lines of its papers and by the state funding record; the centre's own website could not be opened. Its main subject is chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, but it describes its scope as human and animal prion diseases and other protein misfolding disorders, naming Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease and ALS. It is led by two co-directors, Peter Larsen and Tiffany Wolf, both on the veterinary faculty. Its best known work is on faster prion seed amplification tests: MN-QuIC, a gold nanoparticle version of the QuIC test that can be read by eye at a field station within 24 hours, and Nano-QuIC, which adds silica nanoparticles to RT-QuIC to speed it up and resist inhibitors. Some of these tests are licensed to Priogen Corp, a university spinout whose CEO and co-founder is the centre's co-director Larsen. Minnesota funded the centre by name with USD 3,877,000 from its environment trust fund for July 2022 to June 2026. The centre is the University of Minnesota partner in the Norwegian Emerging CWD project, where its MN-QuIC field test is being evaluated and its PrioScout test gave unclear results on reindeer samples. Its work is almost entirely on animals and the environment. Information only, not medical or veterinary advice.

Key facts

  • Papers from 2022 and 2023 give the affiliation as "Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach (MNPRO), University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108", and a 2024 paper places it in the College of Veterinary Medicine. The Norwegian Veterinary Institute lists it as "Center for Prion Research, University of Minnesota".
  • 28 indexed papers from 2021 to 2026 carry the centre's affiliation. Most deal with RT-QuIC detection of CWD prions in deer and elk tissue, soil, water, plants and processing tools, plus test standardisation, a 2026 paper on prion seeding activity in DNA extractions as a lab biosafety issue, and some Alzheimer disease work.
  • The co-directors are Peter Larsen and Tiffany Wolf; Sang-Hyun Oh of electrical and computer engineering is named director of engineering.
  • The CIDRAP Q&A says a faculty meeting the dean called after Larsen joined in 2018, under pressure from legislators about slow CWD testing, led to the centre opening that year.
  • The state record "Establishing a Center for Prion Research and Outreach" gives USD 3,877,000 from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (fiscal year 2023, M.L. 2022, Chp. 94), project dates July 2022 to June 2026, for research on detecting, preventing and treating CWD and other prion diseases in Minnesota wildlife, with Larsen as project manager.
  • MN-QuIC (Sci Rep, July 2022) pairs gold nanoparticles with QuIC so a positive sample changes colour. On lymph node and tonsil tissue from 63 white-tailed deer it agreed with ELISA, IHC or RT-QuIC in 95.7 percent of positive and 100 percent of not-detected animals, and a blinded field run in southeastern Minnesota called all deer correctly within 24 hours. University news dates the field run to the week of 8 March 2021 (search excerpt).
  • Nano-QuIC (Nano Lett, April 2023) adds 50 nm silica nanoparticles to RT-QuIC; on CWD tissue it cut detection time about 2.5 fold and raised sensitivity about 10 fold. A blood version (Nano Lett, November 2024) detected alpha-synuclein seeding in plasma from 4 Parkinson disease patients against 4 controls, with Mayo Clinic co-authors and funding including the Michael J. Fox Foundation and NINDS. This is a very small study.
  • A 2024 mSphere paper with centre authors used swabbing plus RT-QuIC to find prions left on surfaces and steel wires after water or 70 percent ethanol, but not after sodium hypochlorite, matching animal bioassay. It was funded by NIAID and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation.
  • The centre says it licensed 24 hour and 3 hour CWD tests through Priogen Corp, with USDA validation of the 24 hour test as the next step at the time of the interview. Priogen announced a University of Minnesota licence on 12 July 2023 covering portable diagnostics and environmental surveillance, and names Larsen as its CEO, CSO and co-founder. Search excerpts of the centre's product page say sales of its MNPROtein substrate moved to Priogen.
  • Outreach includes a tribal CWD surveillance network started with grants in 2020; search excerpts name the Leech Lake and Mille Lacs Bands of Ojibwe as close partners.
  • In December 2024 the centre received USD 483,497 from USDA APHIS for further CWD work on environmental aspects.
  • In the Norwegian Emerging CWD project (Research Council of Norway 334585) the University of Minnesota is the only partner named on the funder record. The record says the University of Minnesota PrioScout test gave varied, hard to read results on reindeer samples, and the institute page lists MN-QuIC as a possible field test under evaluation.
  • University of Minnesota veterinary researchers have said that working with NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratories gave them access to RT-QuIC, which is not validated for official regulatory testing in deer or elk (search excerpt).

Timeline

  1. 2018Peter Larsen joins the College of Veterinary Medicine; the CIDRAP Q&A places the centre's opening later that year.
  2. 2020Tribal CWD surveillance network launched with grants.
  3. 2021MN-QuIC field run in southeastern Minnesota (date from search excerpt).
  4. 2022State-funded centre project period begins (USD 3,877,000).
  5. 2022MN-QuIC paper published in Scientific Reports.
  6. 2023Nano-QuIC paper published in Nano Letters.
  7. 2023Priogen Corp announces its University of Minnesota licence.
  8. 2023Emerging CWD project starts with the University of Minnesota centre as partner.
  9. 2024Surface decontamination RT-QuIC paper, funded in part by the CJD Foundation.
  10. 2024Blood Nano-QuIC paper on Parkinson disease plasma.
  11. 2024USD 483,497 USDA APHIS award reported.
  12. 2026Funder record of the Norwegian project reports unclear PrioScout results on reindeer samples.
  13. 2026State appropriation for the centre ends.
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