Hawaii Researchers to Study Neurodegenerative Disorder With NIH Support

The University of Hawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine will capitalize on $430,375 from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research into a protein potentially tied to a form of hereditary spastic paraplegia. Matthew Pitts, a cell and molecular biology researcher at JABSOM and study lead, said his team will seek to understand the role that selenoprotein I plays in neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative diseases. According to Pitts, animal models of selenoprotein I knocked out in their central nervous system recapitulated impaired growth and disrupted myelination of human patients. The NIH-backed research effort will run for two years, the university said Monday.