Brain... Washed!

A Neuroimmunology-Inspired Cartoon

The latest GroundTruths Podcast by Dr. Eric Topol featured an interview with brain researcher, Jonathan Kipnis. The Kipnis lab discovered the pipeline by which the brain’s waste products get washed away. Some highlights:

• The brain is like a sink of dirty water. The drain is the meningeal lymphatic system. The better this drain works, the healthier the brain.

• Deep sleep (e.g. slow-wave sleep) supercharges the movement of wastes down the meningeal drain. (Sorry… an after dinner nap won’t do it.)

• Preliminary results from a surgical technique that widens the brain drain in dementia patients improves the washing-out of disease-causing proteins (a possible surgical treatment for Alzheimer’s!) (105 words.)

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My cartoon was used for The New Yorker Caption Contest in November. Congratulations to the winner, Lee Stillerman.