From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rafal@smigrodzki.org)
Date: Tue Jun 10 2003 - 14:54:12 MDT
Anders wrote:
> The laser sweeps through the sample, taking a digitized image of
> its surface. Then a second laser burns away scanned tissue and
> the process begins anew. When the whole sample has been scanned,
> all that remains is a digital, three-dimensional picture of the
> chunk of rat brain. "The sample goes from brains to bits," he
> says.
### Wow, I have discussed this idea with Eugen Leitl a couple of years ago,
and we thought it could be done soon. This is so cool. If progress keeps at
this speed, with the nanodot-labeled antibodies which are already available,
it will be possible to map all the synaptic strengths in a brain sample in a
few years (once we know all the proteins that define synaptic strength).
Talking about progress:
There was recently an article in "Neuron" (Neuron, Vol. 38, 547-554, May 22,
2003,) about the cognitive performance of Alzheimer's patients who received
an anti-amyloid vaccine and developed an adequate antibody response. Turns
out that their cognitive decline was totally arrested, while the controls
lost 6 points on MMSE, which I can tell you, makes a huge difference. While
this is not the cure for Alzheimer's, it could mean a major improvement over
existing approaches.
Our prospects for the future are getting better every day.
Rafal
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