Roundworm could be the answer to treating your nerve Iinjury
By combining neurosurgery with molecular biology, project leader at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Dr Massimo Hilliard, said the findings could help to treat conditions such as vascular damage or spinal cord injury.
“This will now open new avenues to try to exploit this knowledge in other systems closer to human physiology, and hopefully move further towards solving nerve injuries,” he said. It is this process of combination that allows for a much more conducive regeneration, where the scientific team at Queensland University have discovered that they may be able to deliver molecules that act as a healing glue.
Dr Brent Neumann, Research Paper Leader QBI, has listed the transparency, simplistic structure and known genetics of the C.elegans roundworm as the key attributes that allow scientists to easily understand the processes that occur inside its body. In addition to this, the short lifespan of the roundworm meant that the research could be conducted quite quickly.
“This meant we were able to progress rapidly, and go from a description of what happens, to understanding the very process of how it happens on a genetic and molecular level,” he said.
As the first multicellular organism to have its whole genome sequenced in 1998, researchers have built up an extensive body of knowledge about its genetics. Where the benefits of studying the C.elegans roundworm have extended far beyond cellular development, researchers are now using the roundworm to study ageing, sensation and social behaviours.
Dr Hilliard explained that the next step was to find out whether a similar process could work in more advanced animals, and whether there was a way to refine to molecular process in order for it to be more effective.
Where ultimately molecular biology would be converged with other scientific processes such as stem cell therapy, Dr Hilliard announced that it would take four to five years to determine whether molecular regeneration would be possible to recreate.
Source:
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/01/tiny-worm-could-lead-nerve-injury-treatments
