ABOVE: © Lisa ClARK
During her time as a postdoc at the University of Basel in Switzerland, Sarah Shahmoradian decided to study the abnormal aggregates of protein that develop inside nerve cells and contribute to Parkinson’s disease. The protein clumps develop over time in the brains of Parkinson’s patients, leading some scientists to think they wreak havoc on nerve cells, causing severe damage and hastening their death. A fresh look at the clumps, called Lewy bodies, with cutting-edge microscopy tools could reveal insights that might lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s, Shahmoradian recalls thinking. “The original goal was to really find out what the building blocks of Lewy bodies are, what they are made of, and what they actually look like.”
The clumps were first identified in the early 1900s, appearing as abnormal material in nerve cells viewed under a microscope. Additional studies using antibodies that bound to various proteins ...
