Professor Eric Lander  (MIT professor of biology, Founding Director of MIT's Broad Institute)
​
​Identifying Unmet Need for Pharmacological Tools to Modulate Microglial Over-Pruning of Synapses at the Root of Schizophrenia
2016 Talk at the Aspen Institute

Prof. Eric Lander discussing the 2016 discovery (link to scientific paper)  that the genes controlling how microglia prune synapses in the brain are dysregulated in people with schizophrenia.  

This work confirmed a genetic factor explaining why schizophrenic patients have lower synaptic density than healthy controls.  Microglia, the cells which prune synapses as the adolescent brain makes the transition to adulthood, essentially over do it in the context of schizophrenia.  

Lander suggests that the target is now to develop pharmacology which can inhibit this microglial process.  

​D-ETX is an example of this type of microglial modulating pharacology