eBook: Advancing Neuroscience Research - 5

New tools
brain's complexity to catalog various regions and
cell types.
With so many outstanding challenges remaining
for neuroscientists, it's no surprise that one of the
major themes at SfN was novel tools and technologies.
One of the biggest challenges for many
researchers is identifying various cell types, locations,
and interactions with other neuronal cells.
New tools for spatial biology, such as 2-photon
shadow imaging (TUSHI), multiplexed error-robust
fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH),
and single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), are
all primed to answer these types of questions in
unprecedented detail. Researchers such as Zizhen
Yao, Jaing He, Oliver Braubach, Hiroki R. Ueda, and
U. Valentin Nageri took innovative approaches to
create cell, brain, and whole body atlases and relate
them to brain function and disease. These researchers
discussed how these various tools allow
scientists to characterize and quantify different cell
types in the brain at an extremely high resolution,
as well as group them into spatial " neighborhoods "
to study their connections with other brain regions.
These intricate spatial atlases can even help
researchers identify new biomarkers and drug targets
for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
With these advanced techniques, neuroscientists
can obtain greater visualization to provide better
resolution and accuracy as scientists examine the
Pre-formed fibrils (PFFs)
Transgenic animal models were crucial for much
of the work presented at SfN2022, but factors like
lengthy maturation times and low survival rates
can make using these models more challenging.
One solution to this problem has been the generation
of recombinant fibrillar proteins that, when injected
into a host, mimic what happens in disease
states, generating a similar pathology to what is associated
with those diseases within a much shorter
timeframe, as early as 30 days post-injection. Preformed
fibrils (PFFs) used on cell culture or animal
brains can dramatically accelerate the aggregation
of monomers. Adding PFFs to primary neurons or
injecting them into animal brains also results in
neuronal cell death, pathology, and aggregation.
Pre-formed fibrils are one of the many novel tools
available for researchers to generate a more " natural "
model with pathophysiology of neurodegenerative
diseases, including AD and PD.
This eBook contains two chapters that take a deep
dive into the production and usage of PPFs in neuroscience
studies and how scientists can generate
easy-to-use animal models to effectively study
neurodegenerative diseases.
5
eBook: Advancing Neuroscience Research

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of eBook: Advancing Neuroscience Research
