Imagine if you could send your brain a message that told it to grow some new neurons. Well, soon you might be able to.
Francesca Maclean, who is graduating from ANU this afternoon, has spent the past two years working towards a cure for Parkinson’s disease with PhD students in the Laboratory of Advanced Biomaterials.
“In Parkinson’s, neurons die and that results in reduced levels of dopamine, which is the chemical that tells your body when and how to move. That’s why people with Parkinson’s shake,” she says.
“But we’ve come up with a way to help regenerate neurons.”