Shared from scitechdaily.com
A groundbreaking imaging technique has, for the first time, made the invisible visible.
For the first time, scientists have managed to directly observe and measure the protein clusters thought to spark the onset of Parkinson’s disease, representing a major leap forward in understanding this rapidly growing neurological disorder.
These microscopic structures, known as alpha-synuclein oligomers, have long been suspected of initiating the disease within the brain. However, until now, researchers had been unable to detect them directly in human brain tissue.
A team from the University of Cambridge, UCL, the Francis Crick Institute, and Polytechnique Montréal has now developed an advanced imaging method that enables them to visualize, count, and compare these elusive clusters. One of the researchers described the breakthrough as being “like being able to see stars in broad daylight.”