• Question: On the news, it said the Oxford have figured out a way to change skin cells into brain cells, helping people with Parkingsons disease. Does this mean that there will be a way to prevent all types of mental illness?

    Asked by miren to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hi miren 🙂

      I heard about this in the news too! You should definitely check out the ‘healthy ageing’ zone, the scientists there are working on diseases like Parkinson’s: https://healthyageingj11.iasuk.ddev.site/

      I don’t really know much about this topic because I mostly study animals… but I’m excited to hear about this breakthrough! Scientists will be able to study the brain cells (that were artificially grown from the skin cells of patients with Parkinson’s, like you said) and learn what happens to them as the disease develops. Hopefully that will help them figure out how things go wrong.

      Maybe a similar approach could be used to study other degenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s? At the moment, a lot of research involves the use of stem cells, which is controversial if they’re taken from human embryos. The technique that the scientists have been using at Oxford doesn’t involve stem cells, so may be less controversial!

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      That’s a good question – possibly!

      This news does sound like this method can be tried for other mental disorders that are degenerative (usually due to old age).

      Parkinson’s – a disease which is caused by not being able to repair or renew a type of nerve cell (neurons). So if we can continualy make more healthy functioning neurons to replace the old ones, which is like what the research group in Oxford uni have managed to do- then that solves it! The hard bit was to get brain cells samples and directing the skin cells to become brain cells.

      In things like Alzheimer’s where the it is likely due to an increase in the production or accumulation of a specific protein (beta-amyloid protein) in the brain that leads to nerve cell death. So if we can replace the nerve cells then that is a solution- like what the Oxford group did with Parkinson’s disease.

      There are many different types of mental illness so not sure if it will be as useful in other mental illnesses such as personality disorders (e.g. bipolar or antisocial personality) as well as psychotic disorders such as Schizophrenia.

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      This is definitely a key research area and it is obvious that any breakthroughs are going to have a real effect in helping people.

      Some interesting work is actually being done to see how the brain functions (and stops functioning) through the ‘neural map’ that is formed between the cells in the brain. The way we develop memories and knowledge is thought to be very similar to the ways that some computers can be programmed to ‘learn’. Hence, if we can understand and explore how this works using computers we may be able to work out how to repair damage to the brain if it occurs.

      http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110601131755.htm

      This is all great science!

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