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TL;DR: A 2026 review pulled together 36 lab studies that grew motor neurons, the nerve cells destroyed in ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), from stem cells of patients whose ALS comes from changes in one particular gene. Only 3 problems showed up reliably, such as d…
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TL;DR: Mouse studies of spinal muscular atrophy have reported anywhere from no loss to 60% loss of motor neurons, and a German-American team found that which slice of spinal cord gets counted explains much of that spread. Counting the right segments with a rel…
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TL;DR: A 2026 study in Cell & Bioscience found that poly-GR, a toxic repeat protein linked to C9orf72-ALS, pushed motor neuron-like cells toward ferroptosis by raising lipid peroxidation and ferrous iron while weakening the Nrf2/Slc7a11 antioxidant pathway. Ke…
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The Broken Repair Crew: How TDP43 Sabotages Genome Stability TL;DR: TDP43, the protein that misfires in ALS and FTD, secretly controls DNA repair genes—and when it breaks, mutations pile up in neurons, potentially explaining both neurodegeneration and the canc…
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