The Washington Post (5/28, Johnson) reports that researchers have “produced new tools that can deliver genes and selectively activate them in hundreds of different cell types in the brain and spinal cord, a breakthrough that scientists hope advances them toward developing targeted therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.” The Post says the discoveries were “made through the National Institutes of Health’s BRAIN initiative” and show “with unprecedented clarity and precision how neural cells work together, but also how diseases disrupt their tight choreography. The insight offers the promise that doctors may one day treat diseases by manipulating dysfunctional cells.” The advancement of the gene delivery systems was “described in eight papers published Wednesday in the journals Cell, Neuron, Cell Reports, Cell Genomics and Cell Reports Methods.” (SOURCE: APA Headlines)