Latest Philip Washbourne Stories
High-powered microscopes open a live look at a process where mutations lead to autism and other diseases Using spinning disk microscopy on barely day-old zebra fish embryos, University of Oregon scientists have gained a new window on how synapse-building components move to worksites in the central nervous system. What researchers captured in these see-through embryos -- in what may be one of the first views of early glutamate-driven synapse formation in a living vertebrate -- were...
With a pinpoint UV laser beam, researchers are able to learn more about protein synthesis University of Oregon scientists collaborating with an Oregon company that synthesizes antisense Morpholinos for genetic research have developed a UV light-activated on-off switch for the vital gene-blocking molecule. Based on initial testing in zebra-fish embryos, the enhanced molecule promises to deliver new insights for developmental biologists and brain researchers. The seven-member team...
University of Oregon-University of California, Davis, collaboration finds mechanism locking two neuronsResearchers have identified the locking mechanism that allows some neurons to form synapses to pass along essential information. Mutations of genes that produce a critical cell-adhesion molecule involved in the work were previously linked to autism.The discovery -- captured with fluorescent imaging of excitatory neurons harvested from rat pups shortly after birth and studied in culture as...
