Aging is one of the leading causes that is associated with brain dysfunction, degeneration, and disease. Progressive inflammation in the brain due to age adversely affects brain function and increases susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease.
Stanford researchers have developed methods of improving phagocytosis to treat age-related diseases. The clearance of protein aggregates, dying cells, and debris is accomplished by the immune system's professional eater, the macrophage, via a process termed phagocytosis.
The blood-brain barrier is a huge challenge when it comes to the delivery of therapeutic proteins to treat genetic diseases, injury, and neurodegenerative diseases.
A common hurdle for many drug delivery applications is getting the desired compounds to the targeted cells or receptors. Additional barriers of achieving the therapeutic drug concentration and necessary drug diffusion are also present even after successful targeted delivery.
Dr. Stanley Cohen and colleagues have identified small molecular compounds that may be useful in the treatment of nucleotide repeat diseases. A well-known nucleotide repeat disorder is Huntington's disease.
The inventors have identified and developed an archaeal light-driven chloride pump (NpHR) from Natronomonas pharaonis for temporally precise optical inhibition of neural activity. NpHR allows either knockout of single action potentials, or sustained blockade of spiking.
Ion channel dysfunctions lead to a wide array of illnesses including epilepsy, cardiac arrhythmia and type II diabetes. However, the number of clinically approved drugs for restoring normal ion channel function is limited.
Researchers in Prof. Karl Deisseroth's laboratory have developed a portfolio of microbial opsin proteins that can be used for precise and modular photosensitization components that enable optical control of specific cellular processes.
The inventors have developed a light-driven chloride pump (NpHR or Halo) for temporally precise optical inhibition of neural activity with ordinary yellow light.
Temporally precise, noninvasive control of neural circuitry is a long-sought goal of neuroscientists and biomedical engineers. Stanford University researchers in the laboratory of Dr.