Strokes are a significant health hazard among humans. Typically a blood vessel will be blocked depriving nerve cells of vital nutrients. This results in the cell's death.
One of the problems in studying strokes has been that there was no animal model in which they could be studied. Now Professor Chris Schaffer is using advanced optical and laser techniques to cause small strokes in the brains of mice and studying the effects of these on the health of nearby nerve cells.
The ultimate goal of this research is to find ways to protect nerve cells from the damage caused by blockage in a blood vessel.
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