How useful is the laboratory mouse to research on neurodegenerative disease? Anybody who’s dissected a mouse knows that its organs are strikingly similar to textbook pictures of human organs. However, the brain is a special case. Though there are broad similarities, such as that both humans and mice have a hippocampus, humans have many more neurons, many more connections between them, and vastly more intellectual capacity. With this in mind, some neurobiologists advocate using mice to study biochemical pathways that may underlie neurodegenerative disease and not the symptoms or the clinical outcomes. The latest breakthrough in research on neurodegenerative diseases, announced in an October 9 paper in Science Translational Medicine by Julie Moreno and colleagues, is a good example of this approach. neuroblog.stanford.edu/?p=4919&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 09:22:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015