Nikolich uses genomics to build pathway models of how brain diseases begin and progress over time. One pathway he's investigating is the NMDA receptor in brain cells, the optimal functioning of which is necessary for learning, memory, and plasticity of synaptic function. AGY Therpeutics has identified possible drugs that could enhance the plasticity of hippocampal neurons, thus improving the memories and learning abilities of patients.
The final speaker was Mark Brann of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, a company that is using what it calls a chemical-genomics approach to new drug discovery. Essentially, Brann claims that Acadia can use genomics, combined with a drug library, to simultaneously identify possible targets and drugs for those targets.
Using this technique Acadia found a new compound that affects a specific brain receptor, which is now in phase I clinical trials as a treatment to overcome the jerky movements (dyskinesia) that often accompany long-term use of today's drugs for Parkinson's disease. The same receptor also seems to be involved with anxiety and psychosis, so perhaps the new drug will be useful as treatment for those conditions.
Well, that was the end of BIO 2003 for another year. I came away from it with a renewed sense of just how fast biomedical science is progressing. Sure, biology is a lot more complicated than many people thought it might be a generation ago, but both the number and efficacy of our scientific tools and our scientific knowledge base are growing exponentially. There will probably be no silver bullet for curing the many ills that beset us, but who needs a silver bullet when science is providing researchers with the moral equivalent of a battery of 50-caliber machine guns?
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.