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You may have heard that nerve cells (or neurons) in the brain use electrical activity to communicate with one another. The proteins responsible for creating these electrical signals are called ion channels. How do neurons use these electrical signals to communicate with one another in a meaningful way? A good Read More…
DNA repair is an important topic when talking about of neurodegenerative disorders. The amount of biochemical stress the brain experiences increases naturally as we age. Some connections have been made between the amount of stresses on the brain and the age people develop neurodegenerative disorders. Many of these natural stresses Read More…
Written by Frida Niss Edited by Dr. Siddharth Nath Can neurodegeneration in SCA7 in part be due to faulty calcium homeostasis in the cerebellum? Polyglutamine diseases are caused by an increase in the length of CAG repeats within a specific gene. The mutation for spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) was Read More…
RNA-seq is a technology that has been used more and more in recent years to study both basic biology and disease. It’s a powerful tool has enabled scientific discovery at an unprecedented rate. But what exactly is RNA-seq? And, more importantly, what can it tell us? RNA-seq is short for Read More…
A pesquisa científica leva muito tempo: experimentos são realizados, ensaios clínicos são executados e os dados gerados precisam ser analisados e compreendidos antes de serem publicados. Juntos, esse processo não acontece rapidamente. Embora as pessoas possam não perceber, uma etapa que leva muito tempo entre a geração de dados e Read More…
Written by Kim M. Gruver Edited by David Bushart What’s cognition got to do with ataxia? Could the cerebellum mediate both cognitive and motor symptoms in the same disease? And how can scientists use mice to find out? Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, or SCA1, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that Read More…
March 2023 Update: SKYCLARYS™ (Omaveloxolone) has become the first FDA-approved treatment for Friedreich’s Ataxia. You can learn more about SKYCLARYS™ at this link. This Snapshot was written in May 2020 after initial positive results were shared about Omaveloxolone. A new therapeutic compound shows promise to treat Friedrich’s ataxia. What is Read More…
Written by Dr. Michael Flower Edited by Dr. Rachel Harding Editor’s Note: This article was initially published by HDBuzz on March 13, 2020. They have graciously allowed us to build on their work and add a section on how this research may be relevant to ataxia. This additional writing was Read More…
Ataxias can occur due to a multitude of reasons. One way a patient might acquire ataxia is from an accident or an injury – not as a result of genetics. On the other hand, a patient could also inherit a specific mutation (a genetic defect, in other words) from one Read More…
Written by Dr. Maria do Carmo Costa, Edited by Dr. Hayley McLoughlin Collaboration between researchers in Portugal and the United Kingdom discover that a canola oil by-product shows promise, corrects MJD/SCA3 and Parkinson’s Disease symptoms in animal models. Isolated compounds or extracts (containing a mixture of compounds) from certain plants are Read More…
