Oregon researchers make a breakthrough in the study of neurodegenerative diseases

The Institute at Oregon State University has discovered a new technique allowing researchers to watch, study and accurately measure key oxidants in animal cells. This is an important breakthrough that will dramatically speed research for Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The findings are being published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal. They could open the door to major advances on some of the world's most significant degenerative diseases, researchers say.

The OSU scientists, in collaboration with Molecular Probes-Invitrogen have found a chemical process to visualize "superoxides" in biological cells.

This oxidant, which was first discovered 80 years ago, plays a key role in both normal biological processes and - when it accumulates to excess - the destruction or death of cells and various disease processes.

Joseph Beckman, a professor of biochemistry and director of the OSU Environmental Health Sciences Center. "Now we can really see and measure, in real time, what's going on in a cell as we perform various experiments."

Please refer to the full article here.