Creating Self-Healing Neurons

By Niharika Vattikonda

What if we could heal ourselves? The question seems to be straight out of a supernatural fantasy, but recently, a team of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has proved that we are not very far. Led by Dr. Elena Batrakova, the research group created “smarter” immune cells to be delivered to the brain for healing damaged neurons. These immune cells produce and deliver a protein that heals the brain while “teaching” the affected neurons how to continue making that protein for themselves.

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