Bipolar Disorder Discovery at the Nano Level: Tiny Structures Found in Brain Synapses Help Scientists Better Understand Disorder

October 24, 2014

(Nanotechnology Now) – Scientists used a new super-resolution imaging method — the same method recognized with the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry — to peer deep into brain tissue from mice with bipolar-like behaviors. In the synapses (where communication between brain cells occurs), they discovered tiny “nanodomain” structures with concentrated levels of ANK3 — the gene most strongly associated with bipolar disorder risk. ANK3 is coding for the protein ankyrin-G.