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hi all i wonder if gloria steinem had envisioned "cubed brain" when extolling the potential of imaging our neurons in vivo? i wonder if anyone had? janet ------------- UCLA Scientists Image How Parkinson's Genes Misfire In Mice Posted 5/30/2002 - UCLA scientists have developed a fast new way to image how thousands of genes misfire proteins in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. The approach may provide a research blueprint for pinpointing the abnormal brain regions linked to autism and schizophrenia. The new findings are reported in the June edition of Genome Research. Last year, UCLA pharmacologist Desmond Smith developed a new method to rapidly track how genes express proteins in the human brain. Called “voxelation,” the approach involves cutting the brain into cubes, then using DNA chip technology and math to reconstruct gene expression patterns in three-dimensional images. This time, Smith used voxelation to compare gene expression in the brains of mice. Half of the mice received drugs to induce Parkinson’s disease. The UCLA team analyzed the brain cubes with DNA chips to track the expression of 9,000 genes simultaneously. They then combined the 9,000 resulting images to visualize how the genes construct the brain. When they compared the colored brain images of the healthy and diseased mice, Smith and his colleagues discovered that the brains of the mice with Parkinson’s disease showed an abnormal shift in gene activity. The patterns of gene expression had moved and were not located in the brain where they should have been. “This approach identifies which genes play a role in abnormal brain function and where they are located,” said Smith, UCLA assistant professor of molecular and medical pharmacology. “We can use this information to narrow down the brain regions linked to genetic disorders and pinpoint the genes responsible for causing them.” The UCLA study was funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Staglin Music Festival, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, National Science Foundation, National Foundation for Functional Brain Imaging, Dana Foundation, Merck Genome Research Institute and W.M. Keck Foundation. Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of California - Los Angeles for journalists and other members of the public. University Of California - Los Angeles: http://www.ucla.edu/ Copyright 1995-2002 ScienceDaily Magazine: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/05/020530072657.htm janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit primarily perky, parky pd: 55/41/37 cd: 55/44/43 tel: 613 256 8340 email: [log in to unmask] smail: 375 Country Street, Almonte, Ontario, Canada, K0A 1A0 a new voice website: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn