On Tuesday, December 2, SBP held “The Future of Neuroscience Workshop,” an event where SBP faculty shared their findings on what causes neurological disorders and presented their ideas on new directions and approaches to treat brain diseases.
It’s estimated that more than 50 million Americans are affected by neurological disorders. However, many disorders do not have an approved treatment or are in need of newer, more effective treatments. SBP is discovering the underlying mechanisms of neurological disorders, and identifying new disease targets that will lead to innovative treatments to prevent, slow, or even reverse these complex conditions.
The broad list of diseases under investigation included Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors, schizophrenia, depression, multiple sclerosis, as well as neurocognitive disorders caused by infection and inflammation. Many faculty presented data describing the basic biological processes that have gone awry and contribute to dysfunction, revealing “druggable” targets in the brain that may be modulated to improve the health of patients.
A special session on the technology and platforms available for research covered homing mechanisms that enhance the delivery of drugs to the brain, the application of stem cells to discover drugs, using stem cells to potentially restore damaged cells and tissue, and new lab tools to create small-molecules that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier to treat central nervous system disorders.
As SBP moves into 2016, we have a clear picture of the challenges and opportunities to advance our research to create new, better treatments to improve the lives of individuals and their families affected by neurological disorders.