Research on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) in the United States is performed and funded largely by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging are also involved in prion research.

Researchers are investigating many different aspects of TSE, including:

• How prions function and cause TSE
  
  
• Potential treatments to halt the progression of TSE
  
  
• New diagnostic tests to identify TSE
  
  
• Any possible links to other diseases that cause dementia (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease)
  
  
• How TSE may cross the species barrier
  
  
• Whether animal forms of TSE other than bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) are of concern to humans
  
  
• Why some species (e.g., chickens) seem to be immune or resistant to BSE
  
  
• Whether these species, carrying dormant disease, could infect others
  
  
• Possible vaccines for animal forms of TSE (particularly chronic wasting disease)
  
  
• Potential methods to identify TSE in blood samples and remove prions from donated blood