Griffith discussed complex physical chemistry mechanisms by which the scrapie agent could arise from information encoded in protein structure which could then be transferred to other protein molecules. He also considered means by which the same protein might take up different conformations (some being disease related) without changes in its primary structure, and the polymerization of the protein might provide it with different biological properties. He hypothesized that protein could undergo "self replication."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)