Shining light on madness

David Rotman states that better research tools and new insights into the genetics of brain disorders can revive efforts to improve treatment psychiatry disorders. Researchers working at Novartis' research laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed a large incubator-like piece of equipment. This equipment is helping in the development of a new range of psychiatric drugs. Lab plates hold living human stem cells and robotic arms systematically squirt nurturing compounds into the plates inside the incubator immersed in soft light. Novartis researchers can nudge stem cells derived from people suffering from autism or schizophrenia to develop into functioning brain cells by precisely varying the chemicals in the cell cultures. Researchers have developed a way to directly examine in molecular detail what is going wrong in the brain cells of patients with these illnesses.