July 22 is World Brain Day and is dedicated to promoting brain and neurological health. This year’s World Brain Day’s message is “Brain Health for all ages” and focuses on awareness, education, prevention, advocacy and access to care and disability management. According to the World Health Organization, neurological conditions affect one in three people, making neurological research an urgent concern for Arizonans and people around the globe.
From skin samples to stem cells: How body cells can be used for brain and neurological research
Madeline Andrews, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, shared her expertise on the “Arizona Horizon” report for World Brain Day — including how her lab’s induced pluripotent stem cell research could help advance our current understanding of neurological disorders and inform future treatments.
Her lab tackles one of the major challenges of brain research: studying a living brain before and during the course of neurological diseases.
“So, there are different ways that you can study the brain. But obviously, we can’t go into someone’s brain that’s alive and look at how they grow and change in the context of neurological diseases,” said Andrews. “This provides a new tool and resource to really look at how different neurological disorders arise — and maybe some ways that we can treat them.”
Learn more about her research by watching the interview.