New Insight Into Workings of Nervous System

Mouse study could lead to better treatments for neurological diseases

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- A new study that reveals patterns of gene activity in the nervous system of mice will help scientists better understand how particular genes function in the brain and spinal cord and offer insights into the workings of the human nervous system.

That may help scientists develop new ways to prevent or treat disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, psychiatric disorders and drug addiction.

The findings about where specific genes are active in the mouse nervous system during development and adulthood were made by the Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas (GENSAT) project. The research appears in the Oct. 30 issue of Nature.

GENSAT is among the first large-scale attempts to locate where specific genes are expressed, or translated into proteins, in the brain and spinal cord. It's funded by the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

"This paper presents the first fruits of a very ambitious project to map gene expression onto the anatomy of the mouse brain. We believe that this information will facilitate investigations in the function on the normal and diseased brain," NINDS director Story C. Landis says in a prepared statement.

"With this project, we can generate extremely high-resolution information about gene expression. Looking at these genes at different points during development allows us to formulate hypotheses about gene function," principal investigator Nathaniel Heintz of the Rockefeller University in New York City says in a prepared statement.

"It also directs us to previously unidentified genes that are interesting in the nervous system and allows us to visualize their expression in living tissue," Heintz says.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about genes and disease.

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