CONFERENCE COVERAGE SERIES

Brain Research Conference 2015: RNA Metabolism in Neurological Disease

Chicago, Illinois

15 – 16 October 2015

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At the 10th Brain Research Conference: RNA Metabolism in Neurological Disease, a satellite of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, attendees learned about a parade of mice modeling different aspects of ALS and FTD that result from expansions in the C9ORF72 gene. Knockouts lose control of their immune systems, while transgenics overexpressing the repeat-heavy human gene ranged from normal to having movement and cognitive abnormalities. The results suggest the repeats cause toxicity, but scientists have plenty more to do to understand what the mice are telling them.