Neuroscientists put gene therapy into reverse

摘要

Gene therapy has attracted plenty of fanfare but provided very little in terms of positive results. Giving people new genes to remedy defects in their old ones turns out to be a difficult business. But solid if little-noticed progress is being made in an approach that turns the concept on its head: rather than curing conditions, researchers are finding ways to study brain disease by inserting faulty genes into healthy animals. Several pioneers of the technique presented their latest results at this year's annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held on 12-16 November in Washington DC. They say the animal models they have created are easier to make than those based on alternative methods, mimic human versions of disease better, and can be applied to a wider range of species. "They open up possibilities that other models don't allow," says Anders Bjorklund, a specialist in neural transplantation at the University of Lund in Sweden.