November 20, 2008 Speed Scanning the Genome for
Neurodegenerative Disease Therapies In neurodegenerative
diseases, such as Alzheimer and Parkinson, misfolded proteins
form toxic traffic jams that stop neurons from functioning
normally. As the neurons malfunction and eventually die, people
experience symptoms ranging from memory loss to lack of motor
coordination. The good news is that these diseases may be
reversible—if scientists can make the gnarls of mutant proteins
disappear. But identifying drugs that can disperse the offending
proteins could take decades. “If we can figure out the
methodology for one of these diseases, it can then be applied to
many of the other neurodegenerative disorders.” Huda Y. Zoghbi
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Huda Y.
Zoghbi is using a new Collaborative Innovation Award from HHMI
to pull together a team of scientists to speed up that process
of drug discovery. Using their collective knowledge and
expertise, the researchers will identify new genes that act