Frank Owen Bastian

Dr. Bastian (Neuropathologist, Duke School of Medicine) while on faculty at Baylor College of Medicine examined a brain biopsy from a patient with CJD. At that time (1976) the transmissible agent was stopped by a 100 nm filter, which is huge for an electron microscopist. He examined sections in grid-like pattern by TEM and found a coiled structure consistent with a Spiroplasma sp. S. mirum had produced spongiform encephalopathy experimentally in suckling rats. He then examined CJD autopsy by TEM and found a pristine coiled structure easily differentiated from surrounding autolyzed membranes. THIS CONVINCED DR. BASTIAN HE WAS ON THE RIGHT TRACT. He is developing a LIVE diagnostic test for CJD and other TSEs based upon the novel bacterium.