carbar
06-26-2006, 08:30 AM
Statistics for neurological disorders are grim. More than a million Americans suffer from Parkinson's disease alone--a number that is expected to soar over the next few decades as the population ages. No current therapies alter the fundamental clinical course of the condition.
Now, scientists at Whitehead Institute, in collaboration with colleagues at several research centers, including the University of Missouri's School of Biological Sciences, have identified a key biological pathway that, when obstructed, causes Parkinson's symptoms. Even more importantly, they have figured out how to repair that pathway and restore normal neurological function in certain animal models.
"For the first time we've been able to repair dopaminergic neurons, the specific cells that are damaged in Parkinson's disease," says Whitehead Member and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Susan Lindquist, senior author on the paper that will be published June 22 online in Science.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-66814.html
Now, scientists at Whitehead Institute, in collaboration with colleagues at several research centers, including the University of Missouri's School of Biological Sciences, have identified a key biological pathway that, when obstructed, causes Parkinson's symptoms. Even more importantly, they have figured out how to repair that pathway and restore normal neurological function in certain animal models.
"For the first time we've been able to repair dopaminergic neurons, the specific cells that are damaged in Parkinson's disease," says Whitehead Member and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Susan Lindquist, senior author on the paper that will be published June 22 online in Science.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-66814.html