Polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases are inherited neurodegenerative disorders caused by expansion of cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG)-trinucleotide repeats in causative genes. These diseases include spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), Huntington’s disease, dentatorubral-pal...

Axons in the central nervous system (CNS) typically fail to regenerate after injury. This failure is multi-factorial and caused in part by disruption of the axonal cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton, in particular microtubules (MT), plays a critical role in axonal transport and axon ...

Using human genetic information and bioinformatics, Genentech have found a gene that is prominent in Azheimer’s Disease (AD) patients. In order to test molecular mechanism behind the gene's involvement in AD, they performed a functional study in rat neuronal cultures. Using...

Synapse loss and Tau pathology are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other tauopathies, but how Tau pathology causes synapse loss is unclear. We used unbiased proteomic analysis of postsynaptic densities (PSDs) in Tau-P301S transgenic mice to identify Tau-dependent ...

Nanoparticles provide a unique opportunity to explore the benefits of selective distribution and release of cancer therapeutics at sites of disease through varying particle sizes and compositions that exploit the enhanced permeability of tumor-associated blood vessels.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are critical for neuronal function and their dysregulation is repeatedly observed in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we implemented high content image analysis for investigating the impact of several miRNAs in mouse primary mot...

The cystic cavity that develops following injuries to brain or spinal cord is a major obstacle for tissue repair in central nervous system (CNS). Here we report that injection of imidazole-poly (organophosphazenes) (I-5), a hydrogel with thermosens...

In Alzheimer's disease proteasome activity is reportedly downregulated, thus increasing it could be therapeutically beneficial. The proteasome-associated deubiquitinase USP14 disassembles polyubiquitin-chains, potentially delaying proteasome-depend...

Small interfering RNAs (siRNA) and microRNAs (miRNA) have gained a lot of clinical interest in recent years as they can specifically target genes/ proteins of interest and can be engineered to fit the patients’ unique needs and conditions.

To date, most neurodegenerative disorders remain difficult to treat since neither traditional pharmaceutical nor surgical interventions have proven effective for these diseases. Neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS...

In this paper, the MacVicar Lab used Neuro9 siRNA cell transfection nanoparticles (Neuro9-siRNA) prepared using the NanoAssemblr^TM Benchtop instrument to uncover the role of a specific chloride channel in cytotoxic edema, which is a...

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is one of the most malignant forms of brain tumors with very few treatment options other than aggressive surgical removal and radiotherapy. While most conventional chemotherapeutics fail when it comes to GBM, it is anti...

The ability to manipulate gene expression and regulation in neurons is an invaluable asset to advancement of neuroscience and developing therapeutics for neurological disorders.