New imaging method shows how genes activate in the living brain

For the first time, scientists have figured out how to view changes to gene activity in living brains. The brain scan technique may aid discoveries in how Alzheimer’s treatments, schizophrenia, and other neurological disorders work. And not just that: this approach may also help scientists evaluate whether drugs work the way they’re supposed to.

The researchers focused on molecules that regulate how tightly DNA wraps around the proteins that serve as structural units for our genetic material. Think of the DNA as string and these proteins as a spool; how tightly or loosely the string is wound around the spool has effects on how DNA expresses itself. These molecules, called histone deacetylases, are part of what determines how tightly the...