Queensland team's nanoscale tool tracks disease proteins in living neurons
In short
- The NASTIC platform was developed at The University of Queensland and spun out into startup Accretion Bio.
- It tracks biological processes in living cells in real time, at the single-molecule level.
- It will be used in early drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Why the Good News Desk likes this one
Drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases has depended on seeing what happens inside cells. This platform allows scientists to observe single molecules in living neurons across space and time, which the source says has not been possible before. The work is at an early stage, so the path to treatments for patients remains long.
From Phys.org
A technology developed at The University of Queensland allowing scientists to observe how disease-related proteins behave inside living neurons will be used to advance early drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases. The NASTIC (Nanoscale Spatiotemporal Indexing Clustering) platform, spun out into Brisbane-based startup Accretion Bio, enables researchers to study real-time biological processes in living cells across space and time at the single-molecule level for the first time.
