Robin:
That is an amazingly novel idea for the detection of prions! Most researchers are focusing on ways of amplying the misfolded proteins with a sonication amplication method similar to
PCR. However, as you could imagine breaking up clumps of protein and allowing them to form new clumps is not a very precise method at all.
However this spectroscopy methods seems just the opposite - very precise. If this really works, this will be huge for prion diseases, as the majority of them can only be fully diagnosed during autopsy at this time.
Thanks for sharing this link!