Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) are integral to learning, attention, and memory, and are prone to degeneration in Down syndrome (DS), Alzheimer's disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
A new review paper published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience from Bhattacharyya, associate professor of cell and regenerative biology, pulls together what is currently known about DS’s impact on brain development.
Formation of synapses, the connections among nerve cells, is a critical process in brain development.
It is well established that brain development looks different for individuals with Down syndrome, but how early do these differences appear?
In a lab near UW Hospital, Megan Jandy grows stem cells from people with Down syndrome — 10 batches of cells, most in three-dimensional clusters, each batch featuring one group with the extra chromosome that causes the disorder and one group without it.
Tiny but mighty is a good way of describing our genome – the collection of our DNA. Although not visible to the naked eye, the human genome holds around 21,000 genes and millions of DNA variants, containing the information needed to maintain an organism throughout its life.
Structural pathologies, such as brain, are present at birth in Down syndrome (trisomy 21), reflecting embryonic origins that are generally associated with smaller organs or reduced growth.
Xinyu Zhao, PhD, and Anita Bhattacharyya, PhD, will partner on research over the next four years to better understand the molecular underpinnings behind the diversity of FXS symptoms and how that diversity may inform the search for effective therapies.
A new paper published by Anita Bhattacharyya, PhD reveals that the differences in brain structure in individuals with Down syndrome (DS or Trisomy 21) may be due to disrupted signaling pathways that alter brain development to result in the incorrect number or placement of cells in the brain.
While working as a health care administrator in Santa Cruz, California during the 2015 Zika virus outbreak, Jose Martinez realized his background in chemistry and pharmacology could be harnessed to set policies that are grounded in science.
