UNMC researcher Wallace Thoreson, Ph.D., is one of the lead investigators of a study designed to better understand how signals are transmitted in the brain.
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| Wallace Thoreson, Ph.D. |
The research, which is reported in the current issue of Nature Neuroscience, could lay the necessary groundwork to develop new treatments for a variety of degenerative diseases of the eye and ear such as Usher’s syndrome and rod-cone dystrophy.
The group — which included researchers from Yale University School of Medicine and Stony Brook University — studied the sensory neurons involved in vision, balance and hearing.
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They gained a better understanding of ribbons, specialized structures found in sensory neurons including photoreceptor cells, retinal bipolar cells and hair cells involved in hearing and balance.
"An understanding of how these signals are transmitted can help us better understand the causes of neurodegenerative disease since many of these diseases originate with mis-regulation of the release from neurons," said Dr. Thoreson, director of research and professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences. "We are optimistic that we will eventually learn how to repair and restore damaged neurons by using stem cells, prosthetic devices and other mechanisms.
"But, before we can do this, it is necessary to understand how these nerve cells work normally."