Summary Drug repurposing takes previously known compounds and drugs, and applies them to current health problems. Drug repurposing is particularly beneficial for finding rare disease therapies because it offers an accelerated and economical alternative to traditional drug discovery, a process which is often deemed too costly and time consuming for the small population pools affected …
Parkinson’s disease [PD] is a progressive, debilitating condition which affects over 10 million people worldwide. Being such an impactful, and costly disease (~$52 billion per year in the USA), researchers have turned to modeling the disease in alternative animal models like the zebrafish (Parkinson’s Foundation, 2018). In this article we discuss how larval zebrafish are …
Chemicals Models of Parkinson’s Disease in Larval Zebrafish Read More »
The Western Medical Community has long viewed acupuncture with skepticism, but increasingly physicians are exploring the potential benefits of this traditional practice. In fact, despite often being referred to as a pseudoscience, recent research has found significant benefits of acupuncture treatment for patients with chronic pain and those suffering from opioid addiction. In this article …
Poking its way into Western Medicine: How Acupuncture Could Help Ease Chronic Pain Read More »
Summary Inflammation’s role in diseases has become increasingly apparent, with inflammatory responses being linked to diseases as common as arthritis, and as debilitating as Parkinson’s. A promising way to counteract inflammation is through natural compounds – currently these compounds are being tested on the well-suited alternative animal model, zebrafish. In this article we discuss the …
Summary: This Earth Month we at InVivo Biosystems are thinking about how we utilize Earth’s resources in biomedicine – from animal systems that enable us to model a patient’s disease or gene mutation, to natural products which can act as therapeutics, we have a lot to be grateful for. Often when thinking about celebrating Earth …
Quick Guide to Natural Products: What They are and How They Impact You Read More »
In this article, we will discuss the commonly used model organisms for microbiome research, and what insights they can provide.
Summary Zebrafish models largely began as a way to research developmental biology, however, their potential to be a preclinical model of human disease quickly became apparent. While the pharmaceutical industry initially invested in zebrafish models, they have yet to widely adopt it – it’s time for that to change. George Stresinger began using zebrafish as …
Lost and Found: Zebrafish as a Drug Discovery Tool Read More »
In this article we discuss Weissbourd’s recent publication as well as GCaMP more broadly, showing how advancing technology has enabled researchers to ask questions that span disciplines and model organism species.
Recently, researchers at Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute published an article in Nature Aging which has caused quite a stir in the medical community and media – in the article these researchers report that an analysis of over 7 million people, spanning six years, found that those taking the Erectile dysfunction (ED) drug sildenafil (marketed as Viagra) were 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This being said, there are some important caveats to this study – and so, although media reports on this study include lines such as “the little blue pill could soon be prescribed to tackle dementia”, more realistic implications should be the takeaway (but not less exciting!).
Experiments fall into three categories – in vivo, in vitro, and in silico studies, and all of them have a different, but important role in research. This article will give a brief definition of each category and an overview of their research applications.
