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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		How do researchers study the brain's synapses?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2016-08-16 19:00:00
	Description:		A synapse is the point of communication between two neurons and researchers can actually study them in great detail. "It turns out that we can isolate synapses. They’re about a micron and they reseal themselves into little circles, into little spheres that we can study biochemically." That’s Karen Gylys, a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing, who has been studying Alzheimer’s disease using cryopreserved tissue. "It’s cryopreserved so that we can get these little spherical, they’re called ‘synaptosomes’. And so that gives us this ability to sort of see into the synapse – to study what’s happening. We actually purify thousands and thousands of synapses." Gylys explains that they do this by using a laser-based technology called flow cytometry, which suspends cells in a stream of fluid and passes them one at a time, through an electronic detection apparatus. "In addition to having the cryopreserved tissue that makes the synaptosomes by use of flow cytometry, we can ask the questions we want to ask with very great precision."
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