March 2023 News

Few professions match the powerful impact of striving to empower and improve the lives of those around them the way social work can. There is a very special person who has been filling this crucial function for the past seven years at the Pranger ALS Clinic and the University of Michigan Health’s Department of Neurology, Darla Goulet, MSW.

Academic journal Muscle & Nerve featured ALS research from a team led by Stephen Goutman, MD, MS, and Eva Feldman, MD, PhD.

Published in iScience , a team from the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies used single-cell RNA sequencing to look at gene expression of microglia in the hippocampus that was inflamed due to obesity. These results further position microglia as a potential therapy target to preserve brain health when obesity is present.

Kai Guo, Ph.D., lead a study published in Microbiome , that looked at changes in the microbiome (gut) in relation to a high-fat diet and neuropathy in hopes of finding a new therapeutic target for peripheral neuropathy. Currently, there are no effective treatments.

NeuroNetwork leadership traveled 8,000 miles to partner with Indian colleagues, led by Dr. Vijay Viswanathan of M.V. Hospital for Diabetes in Chennai, to understand what is driving a surge in diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and complications of obesity in their country and to collaborate on healthier outcomes.