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Written By Dr. Hannah K ShorrockEdited by Dr. Celeste Suart Accumulating DNA damage without being able to repair it may lead to a cascade of negative effects in SCA7, resulting in neuronal demise and death. Why do neurons in the cerebellum degenerate in spinocerebellar ataxia type 7? If scientists can Read More…
Meta-analysis refers to a research process. You might think of it as a ‘Cliff’s Notes’ summary that compiles, evaluates, and synthesizes all of the individual research reports that were completed by the others. Using statistics, a meta-analysis synthesizes the findings of multiple similar scientific studies to produce an overall result. Read More…
Written by Dr. Hannah K ShorrockEdited by Dr. Larissa Nitschke Differences in the lifetime risk of developing SCA8 are associated with the presence of interruptions in the ATXN8 repeat expansion. In most spinocerebellar ataxias caused by repeat expansions, everyone who carries a repeat expansion above a certain threshold will develop Read More…
The cortex has many folds, just like how an origami flower has many folds. This helps increase the brain surface area by tightly packing in neurons. “Origami Lotus Flowers” by Dominic’s pics is licensed under CC BY 2.0. The cerebral cortex, also called “the cortex,” is a highly organized layer of tissue that Read More…
Written by Alexandra Putka Edited by Dr. Larissa Nitschke Profound gene changes in non-neuronal cells are revealed by a recent study in SCA1. The two major cell types of the brain are neurons and glia, yet you have probably heard little about glia, which outnumber neurons. The word glia comes Read More…
Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a neurodegenerative disease first described in 2001 that is caused by a mutation or change to a gene on the X chromosome. The X chromosome is the section of DNA that determines biological sex. Biological females typically have two X chromosomes (one from their Read More…
Drosophila melanogaster is the scientific name of the common fruit fly. Yes, the ones flying around your green bin on a hot summer day. You may be surprised to learn that it is a commonly used model organism in biomedical research and has made significant contributions to many fields of Read More…
Picture of the Lim lab taken in May 2022. Left to right: Chris Lee, Benjamin Sanders, Kimberly Luttik, Dr. Janghoo Lim, Dr. Neha Gogia, Luhan Ni, Ashley Owens, Victor Olmos Principal Investigator: Janghoo Lim, PhD Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA Year Founded: 2010 What disease areas do you Read More…
Written by Alexandra Putka Edited by Dr. Hannah K Shorrock Improving neuron firing regularity rescued incoordination but not muscle weakness in a SCA1 mouse model. Spinocerebellar ataxias are characterized by problems within the cerebellum, the part of your brain responsible for balance, coordination, and walking. A central question within preclinical Read More…
Induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs are adult stem cells that can be transformed into different types of tissues or organs. This research can be used to study different disease mechanisms. Many multicellular organisms like us come from a fertilized egg cell, the zygote, which divides into more and more Read More…
