[Stitcher]

Worms and the Human Brain
An experimental tool could help illuminate Parkinson's disease.

Friday, September 14, 2007
Technology Review, Published by MIT

There are no cures for debilitating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, and researchers still don't understand what causes brain cells to die in patients suffering from these diseases. But MIT researchers hope to speed up the quest for answers and the search for therapies in an unlikely test subject: worms.

Mehmet Fatih Yanik, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, is developing microfluidic devices that could greatly facilitate experiments, including whole-genome screening and drug testing, on small nematode worms called C. elegans. They are a favorite subject of biologists and medical researchers because the worms are tiny and transparent, and researchers can do experiments with them that are not possible with larger animals.

Yanik's polymer chips have two layers of channels. One layer is "like a maze," he says. In this layer, the one-millimeter-long worms are shuttled and sorted at high speed. The channels are only a few hundred micrometers wide and hold very small volumes of liquid. The upper layer is what Yanik calls "the plumbing." It contains valves that control the flow of liquid and worms.

Read full article

[ZucchiniFlower]

Thanks, I was going to post this! It's amazing how much the researchers learn from these worms. We have too much in common with them!

[ßøß™]

It bears noting that brain tissue in humans is the same as brain tissue in every other animal in the animal kingdom. The only difference is in the complexity of the overall nervous system. The basic chemistry of all brain cells is identical. If researchers can figure out how to stimulate dopamine production in worms then it is not a far stretch to assume that the same methods could be adapted to use in the human brain.

Sounds like promising research. I hope it bears fruit.

[ol'cs]

only has a couple of thousand neurons. Makes a "bird brain" appear to be highly evolved!