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Written by Dr. Hannah Shorrock and Sarah Donofrio Edited by Celeste Suart Developing innovative imaging techniques and leveraging a clear understanding of disease mechanisms will pave the way for clinical trial success in the ataxias. We will discuss cutting-edge research findings on these topics this afternoon! This session will feature Read More…
Written by Celeste Suart Edited by Dr. Hayley McLoughlin The first-ever International Congress for Ataxia Research is starting today! Want to learn more about what is happening at the meeting? This week, SCAsource and the National Ataxia Foundation will be posting Conference Previews of the sessions at ICAR. These previews Read More…
Brainstem – the part that connects and acts as a communicator between our brain and our spinal cord. The brainstem itself is composed of midbrain, pons, and medulla oblangata. Even minor injuries or disruptions to this neural communication and this region can have devastating consequences. The pons is a horseshoe-shaped Read More…
Written by Dr Hannah K Shorrock Edited by Dr Vitaliy V Bondar Measuring levels of polyQ ATXN3 proteins in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma distinguishes SCA3 patients from unaffected individuals For disease-modifying medicines or therapies to be approved for use in the clinic, the treatments must demonstrate success at meeting pre-set Read More…
Many daily tasks, such as writing or buttoning a shirt, require fine motor skills. One aspect of fine motor skills is muscle strength. In order to write, for example, you need to grip the pencil with the appropriate amount of force. Ataxia can involve a loss of control over fine Read More…
Immunofluorescence is a common laboratory technique used to see proteins in a sample through microscopy. It relies on attaching a fluorophore, a chemical compound that can release light of a certain colour, to an antibody that can recognize a specific protein of interest. Immunofluorescence is an important tool for studying Read More…
Principal Investigator: Vikram Shakkottai, MD, PhD Location: UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA Year Founded: 2010 What disease areas do you research? SCA1 SCA2 SCA3 SCA6 SCA7 What models and techniques do you use? Mouse Models Microscopy Patch-clamp electrophysiology In vivo electrophysiology Next-generation sequencing approaches (RNA-seq) Research Focus What is your Read More…
Most things about you are written in your genes: from the colour of your eyes, whether you are lactose intolerant, to if you have a higher chance of getting certain diseases. You may have heard of the popular ancestry DNA testing service that tells if you are part Chinese, part Read More…
Written by Dr. Hannah K Shorrock Edited by Dr. Hayley McLoughlin A C. elegans model of SCA3 helps to identify the serotonin receptor agonist befiradol as a potential therapeutic for SCA3 To move toward treatments for ataxia patients, it is important to understand what cellular and molecular pathways are dysfunctional Read More…
The SCAsource team is excited to announce that we are partnering with the National Ataxia Foundation (NAF) to improve our website infrastructure! As you know, SCAsource is run by a team of volunteers, mainly graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from ataxia research labs. We’re researchers, not web designers, but we’ve Read More…
