NYSCF Innovator Shows Zika’s Effects on Peripheral Nervous System
NewsNYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Alumnus Dr. Gabsang Lee and his team at Johns Hopkins University published their latest insights into how the zika virus causes cellular damage. Described in Nature Neuroscience, the researchers found that zika directly infects peripheral neurons and causes cell death. While it is well established that the zika virus is implicated in both central nervous system and peripheral nervous system damage, the mechanisms of this assault are not well understood. Dr. Lee and his colleagues utilized a mouse model to tease out the effects in the peripheral nervous system as well as to confirm infection in stem-cell-derived human neural crest cells.