eupolicy.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
This Mastodon server is a friendly and respectful discussion space for people working in areas related to EU policy. When you request to create an account, please tell us something about you.

Server stats:

225
active users

#knowablemagazine

6 posts5 participants0 posts today

Back in 2008, neurovirologist Renée Douville observed something weird in the brains of people who’d died of the movement disorder ALS: virus proteins.

But these people hadn’t caught any known virus.

Instead, ancient genes originally from viruses, and still lurking within these patients’ chromosomes, had awakened and started churning out viral proteins.

knowablemagazine.org/content/a

Knowable Magazine | Annual ReviewsHow rogue jumping genes can spur Alzheimer’s, ALSOur genomes are peppered with DNA segments called retrotransposons that can move from place to place. When unleashed, some can kill nerves and promote inflammation — a discovery that may inspire treatments for neurodegeneration.