Reconstructing the Brain in a Dish: Emergence of Neuroinflammation from Retrotransposons

Visit: http://www.uctv.tv) Researchers at the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program have used a rare disorder, Aicardi Goutieres (AGS), to explore fundamental brain mechanisms. By utilizing cortical...

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UCTV, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA TELEVISION - WWW.UCTV.TVUC SAN DIEGO STEM CELL PROGRAMRESEARCH ADVANCESRECONSTRUCTING THE BRAIN IN A DISHEMERGENCE OF NEUROINFLAMMATION FROM RETROTRANSPOSONSIn this work we took advantage of a rare disorderlike Aicardi-Goutieres to really explore the fundamental mechanismthat happens in your brain.Clinically you can see the manifestationpre-birth by ultrasound.You can detect that their brains are not developing well.They have microcephalic brains.Overall, it's a very severe neurological disorder.DESIGNING THE STUDY AND CHOOSING TARGETS FOR INVESTIGATIONThere are a couple of things that we knew about Aicardi-Goutieres.One is the fact that it behaves like an autoimmune responsein the absence of any obvious infection.Second is the n...