A Florida scientist studying simple sea animals called comb jellies has found the road map to a new form of brain development that could lead to treatments for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
“There is more than one way to make a brain,” University of Florida researcher Leonid Moroz, who led an international research team, told the media.
Comb jellies, for example, don’t use dopamine, implicated in Parkinson’s disease, to control brain activity. They also can regenerate their brains in less than four days. In one experiment, a comb jelly regenerated its brain four times.
“Now we know we can construct neural systems differently,” Moroz said.
Moroz said degenerative brain diseases typically can be treated to stall progression but not reversed.
Discovering the key to regeneration as evidenced by the comb jellies could lead to advancements in synthetic and regenerative medicine, he said.
