Last year when I interviewed Mark Bear, a researcher and teacher at MIT, on his work on the neurobiology of fragile X, he was giddy with the possibility that the basic research he and others were doing might quickly translate to drugs that could reduce the genetic damage.
“I would have never dared to dream that our work on basic mechanisms of LTD might suggest a treatment—possibly a cure—for the most common inherited form of human mental retardation and autism,” he said then. LTD stands for long-term synaptic depression, which is a weakening of a neuronal synapse, and the signals it sends out, that can last for hours or days.
Bear is featured today in an audio piece on NPR.org describing his work and the human drug trials now under way, with a focus on one family who formed a foundation to fund such research.
Post a Comment