Tag: Astrocytes

New screening platform accelerates search for Rett syndrome treatments and reveals new disease mechanisms

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At a Glance: Developing treatments for rare genetic disorders, such as Rett syndrome, is notoriously difficult, often requiring years of research and significant financial investment. Researchers at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison have developed a new drug screening platform for Rett syndrome that could help accelerate the search for potential therapies while uncovering new …

Newly funded research to study astrocyte dysfunction in Rett syndrome

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The lab of Waisman Center director, Qiang Chang, PhD, professor of medical genetics and neurology, has received $1 million in funding from the Department of Defense to study the dysfunction of astrocytes, a key brain cell that supports neurons, in Rett syndrome.

We need to know STAT: Mechanisms behind GFAP accumulation in Alexander disease involve transcription factor STAT3.

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The hallmarks of Alexander disease, aggregation of misfolded GFAP proteins and dysregulation of brain cells called astrocytes, may be stopped and reversed in rodent models with the inactivation of the transcription factor STAT3.

Human brain’s most ubiquitous cell cultivated in lab dish

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Long considered to be little more than putty in the brain and spinal cord, the star-shaped astrocyte has found new respect among neuroscientists who have begun to recognize its many functions in the brain, not to mention its role in a range of disorders of the central nervous system.