Supercomputer study unlocks secrets of brain and safer anaesthetics
Researchers have used a supercomputer to show how proteins in the brain control electrical signals, in a breakthrough that could lead to safer and more effective drugs and anaesthetics.
In the seven-year study just released, RMIT University researchers – led by Professor Toby Allen and including Dr Bogdan Lev and Dr Brett Cromer – modelled how protein “switches” are activated by binding molecules to generate electrical signals in the brain.
The findings, which involved hundreds of millions of computer processing hours, pave the way for understanding how brain activity can be controlled by existing and new drugs, including anaesthetics.
