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A potential key medical breakthrough

Sufferers from epilepsy might – just might – have a cure for their condition thanks to this piece of medical technology. I know one person who has epilepsy and it has had a hugely disruptive impact on her life (she is not allowed to drive, for instance).

As the late musician Ian Dury used to sing, there ain’t half some clever bastards.

6 comments to A potential key medical breakthrough

  • Perry E. Metzger

    I’m sorry to say that the technology in question is not going to help epileptics. Not, at least, unless they were germline engineered to have the right proteins expressed in every brain cell from birth, and then had a web of fiber optics implanted in their brains using exceptionally complicated surgical techniques.

    I’m really puzzled by why this got so much hype when it showed up in the news a while back — it is an interesting experimental tool for studying the brains of genetically engineered animals, not a potential treatment for anything at all. I assume part of the issue is the ignorance of the reporters covering the story.

    To summarize, what has been done is that some organisms have been genetically engineered so they express a protein that is light sensitive and which will suppress neural firing when the creature’s neurons are exposed to light of an appropriate frequency. Clearly, this is not a treatment for epilepsy patients. It is a way to build custom lab animals where you can use light instead of electrodes to alter neural firing patterns.

  • And yet we frequently hold back on such research because it offends the sensibilities of adeherents of primitive desert cults.

  • Perry E. Metzger

    I’m sorry to say that the technology in question is not going to help epileptics. Not, at least, unless they were germline engineered to have the right proteins expressed in every brain cell from birth, and then had a web of fiber optics implanted in their brains using exceptionally complicated surgical techniques.

    I’m really puzzled by why this got so much hype when it showed up in the news a while back — it is an interesting experimental tool for studying the brains of genetically engineered animals, not a potential treatment for anything at all. I assume part of the issue is the ignorance of the reporters covering the story.

    To summarize, what has been done is that some organisms have been genetically engineered so they express a protein that is light sensitive and which will suppress neural firing when the creature’s neurons are exposed to light of an appropriate frequency. Clearly, this is not a treatment for epilepsy patients. It is a way to build custom lab animals where you can use light instead of electrodes to alter neural firing patterns.

  • Sandy P

    Hmmm, there’s been a breakthru for MS.

  • The technology itself will not help epileptics directly. However, it sounds like a very powerful tool for analyzing how the brain works and which circuits do what, even if it can only be used in genetically-engineered research animals. This improved understanding of the brain could then enable us to develop better treatments for epilepsy, Parkinson’s, etc., as well as being useful in a great many other ways. That seemed to be the point of the article.

  • It’s a shame about Ian Dury and about Warren Zevon.
    Both died of lung cancer (I think) in the last couple of years.
    I bought a compilation of Ian D. and some of his later work was on it.
    Still brilliant.
    I like “Mash It Up”.