That’s what he hopes is in store for the next-generation drugs for mental disorders.Īlthough at times precarious, exploring the fringes of psychological treatment does yield some positive effects, Li admits. Better understanding of the circuits involved in disease could mean better drug targets. To overcome these, Li said that we have to go back to the basics, and work to tackle the biological roots of these diseases, like the brain circuits that he and many other neuroscientists have zeroed-in on. They’re not effective for many patients, and can have unappealing side effects. But it was not initially used for treating depression, it was used for anesthesia, and someone discovered that people waking up from anesthesia are sometimes relieved of depression symptoms.”Īdditionally, according to Li, many of these clinically available drugs are not perfect. “The drug was used for some purpose first and then people eventually discovered that maybe it’s important for depression. Most drugs are based on serendipity,” said Li. “Most of the therapies on the market are not based on our knowledge of how the brain works, or the mechanism of the disease. Its presence breaks a more than 30-year-long dry spell from when the last drug for depression entered the market. Just a month ago, the FDA approved a ketamine-derivative nasal spray as a therapy for depression. And even though ideas like using MDMA to treat PTSD are a bit out-there, he thinks it’s good there’s more attention being paid to finding effective ways to treat mental illness. He thinks this is a lucky era for the field, a golden period in scientific time where a lot of technology, innovation, and ideas are converging. It’s a good time to be doing neuroscience research on mental illness, commented Li, smiling, his eyes hopeful. The confluence of curiosity and frustration set him down a path into neuroscience research. It made me think: how can we try to understand, how can we change that?” “But what could they do? The only measurement the doctor had was behavior observation, and by talking to the patients. “It was striking to me that they had maybe three drugs as options for treating these patients, and they didn’t know if any of them would work,” Li said. The sheer helplessness felt by both the doctors and patients, as well as the lack of technology to probe at the problem presented Li with an obvious knowledge gap. ![]() Originally intending to train as a clinician, his trajectory shifted after clinical rotations in a psychiatric hospital. Li first started on his odyssey into the abnormal brain as a medical student in the 1990s. But what happens in the brain when its complex circuitry is interrupted or malfunctions? When there is a kink in the machinery of cognition? That’s the holy grail that many neuroscientists, like Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Bo Li, continue to pursue. It’s a beautiful marvel of evolution that coordinates and translates messages from cells into emotions, memories, and actions. In its full-functioning glory, the brain helps us move, think, dream, and create. Escher-esque network of pathways, the brain is a maze of chaotic proportions. ![]()
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