The Center for the Study of Neurodegenerative Disorders at the University of California, Santa Barbara is located within the Neuroscience Research Institute at UCSB. Our focus is to understand neurodegenerative disorders from many perspectives and to contribute to their effective treatment and management. Our emphasis is primarily on multiple sclerosis (MS) and other demyelinating disorders, though our approaches in technical development and integrative studies suggest our approaches may be helpful for a variety of disorders.
We seek to integrate new approaches in bioengineering and traditional medicines. How to solve a disease of unknown cause, inadequate treatment, and unpredictable course? That is what we hope to review and update on this website, our approaches. We learn as much as possible from those with MS. We also promote mentorship and have helped fill the need for pre-medical experiences at UCSB due to the lack of a medical school here. For eight years we have worked with local high schools and undergraduate pre-medical and/or biomedical research students.
The Center's Director, Dr. Cynthia Husted (husted@engineering.ucsb.edu), has a doctorate in the physical chemistry of myelin lipids from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with an emphasis on the theory and instrumentation of nuclear magnetism and applications to myelin lipids and changes in development and disease. Postdoctoral studies were in neuroradiology at UCSF. She also worked as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit for 5 years, with hands-on medical experience. She has continued these interests during her career along with studies of traditional medicines, currently with an emphasis on Tibetan medicine, and other expansions into physical chemistry, such as Langmuir monolayers, fluorescence microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and calculations of myelin membrane forces. This website is an ongoing exploration of the merging of disciplines. Feedback is appreciated.
Myelin is a multi-lamellar membrane which functions as an insulator for conduction of nerve impulses. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is considered an autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system and myelin is recognized as foreign and destroyed. Our research plan has two primary hypotheses:
- Hypothesis 1: Inherent differences in myelin lipids from normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) contribute to the onset and progression of demyelination in MS.
- Hypothesis 2: Myelin lipids are altered in acute immune-mediated demyelination in a manner that promotes demyelination.