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Seeing inside Alzheimer’s disease brain - EurekAlert


Scientists investigating Alzheimer’s disease have determined the structure of molecules within a human brain for the very first time. Published today in Nature, the study describes how scientists used cryo-electron tomography, guided by fluorescence microscopy, to explore deep inside an Alzheimer’s disease donor brain. This gave 3-dimensional maps in which they could observe proteins, the molecular building blocks of life a million-times smaller than a grain of rice, within the brain.  In the longer-term it is hoped that observing this interplay of proteins within tissues will accelerate identifying new targets for next generation mechanism-based therapeutics and diagnostics. 

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