PLT Test Blog

Need a wizard, or your local doctor? I was intrigued to come across a recent paper on immune modulatory treatments for autism by a couple of doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children.   The lead author has interests in: ·       Autism spectrum disorders ·       Psychopharmacology ·       Developmental Disabilities ·       Williams syndrome ·       Angelman syndrome ·       Down syndrome Apparently, he is an internationally-recognized expert in the neurobiology and neuropsychopharmacology of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders including autistic disorder.  Sounds promising, hopefully we will learn something new. The paper is actually a review of existing drugs, with immunomodulatory properties, that have already been suggested to be repurposed for autism. The abstract was not very insightful, so I have highl...

  This is a post for the scientists among you, that like to separate science from pseudoscience. You may not be aware that in recent years some revolutionary science has been developed allowing you to create a brain biopsy from a sample of skin.   I was rather taken aback when I first read about it, but it is true.   Researchers are now creating their own artificial biopsies, on which to experiment. I first read about this in work being done at Stanford, looking at Timothy Syndrome .   I did not really focus on the importance of what they had done.   Without physical samples, it almost impossible to develop medical therapies and you cannot take brain biopsies from living people.   Rats and other lab animals are never going to be an adequate substitute.     Here is a link to Johns Hopkins, where there used the same technology to make a brain sample with Huntington’s disease . Turning Skin Cells Into Brain Cells The true potential of this technology...