Fantastic Beasts…Models in Neuroscience

How can we work out how different parts of the brain communicate? How can we work out what might happen when we take different drugs before humans try them? How can we work out what happens when systems in the brain get disrupted? These are just a handful of the questions that we try to address using cell based models plated on a dish we can hold in the palm of our hand.

Organophosphate poisoning is a major global problem and a public health priority. Unfortunately, treatment for this form of poisoning is inefficient, so often an acute attack can result in fatalities. I use the model organism C. elegans which is a nematode/worm to find new ways of combatting this form of poisoning. Join me to hear about the effects of these poisons on a global scale, to learn how powerful C. elegans is in research and how it is being used to find new treatments