P1 student Yearam “Esther” Tak presented her research on cerebral palsy at the American Neurological Association Annual Meeting and the 48th Child Neurology Society Annual Meeting in October. Under the direction of McCall and Bhooma Aravamuthan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, Tak created symptoms of cerebral palsy in mice to learn what causes dystonic movement, involuntary muscle contractions that make normal movement and posture difficult.
“In order for us to understand how to treat cerebral palsy, we have to understand the disorder in general because there isn’t a lot of existing research out there,” Tak said. “By activating neurons in mice brains after introducing hypoxia, we are able to see if a particular neuron activation creates dystonic movement. Once we better understand how dystonic movement occurs, we can work toward an understanding of how it occurs in people who have cerebral palsy.”
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