Our former post-doc Álvaro was leading the project on investigating the potential of a light-activated RTK, Opto-Ret, as an intervention option for the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson’s.
The study, published in PLoS Genetics [LINK], shows how Opto-Ret successfully alleviates disease hallmarks in a Drosophila model of the disease.
To our best knowledge this is the first demonstration of optogenetic delivery of pro-survival signals in any in vivo scenario of tissue degeneration.
This work was a fantastic collaboration with the groups of Konstanze Winklhofer at RUB Bochum, Peter Soba at ZMNH Hamburg and Daria Siekhaus at IST Austria.
Congratulations to everyone involved, and especially Álvaro, as well as Nikolas and Sam!
You can read more about the story here:
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