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.
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.
Researchers in the laboratories of Dr. Karl Deisseroth and Dr. Peter Hegemann have engineered mutant ChR2 (Channelrhodopsin-2) proteins with light-sensitivity that is increased by orders of magnitude compared to wild-type ChR2.
Researchers in Prof. Karl Deisseroth's lab have discovered and engineered new microbial opsin proteins and cell trafficking tools to enable selective cell-type specific, light-sensitive switches for neuromodulation.