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07/03/2010Let there be light - at least in mice
21/02/2010Cell injection back on the agenda
24/12/2009Robots advance
02/11/2009GDNF and Cogane
13/08/2009Neptunists and Plutonists
23/07/2009Black and White - A trip around the Antrim Coast
06/07/2009OS - Need an excuse for playing games?
23/05/2009Another Paradigm shift
20/05/2009Testicles to you
22/03/2009OS - BBB Yet Again
 

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This section of the website will contain my thoughts on PD research and related matters.  My original degree was in chemistry and I have had a life long interest in science and technology.  I have over the years completed a number of OU courses in science and mathematics.  I am also Bryn's Dad.
 
07/03/2010 Let there be light - at least in mice
 A report in a recent issue of Scientific American concerns a new field of optogenetics.  Light targeted at specific brain centres, can modify operation of neurons.  Link here

In a seminal experiment, researchers in the US and Germany were able to use a virus to ferry a light sensitive gene into a specific type of neuron.  The neuron could then be made to fire using a pulse of light delivered by an optical fibre.

In early animal experiments researchers were able to control movement using pulses of light.

The process has been used to work out the mechanism of Deep Brain Stimulation – a treatment for PD.  This has shown that the current understanding of the DBS mechanism is probably in need of revision.  The work has already enabled improved placing of DBS electrodes.  Perhaps in the future it may be possible to use light directly instead of electrodes    And even use use light to stimulate Dopamine production directly.