Vanderbilt researchers have developed tools to probe the role of the essential metal manganese in neurons, and which offer a started point for developing therapeutic agents for manganese-related neurological disorders.

Melissa Darnall could easily look around her family reunions and pick out who had Huntington’s disease (HD). The genetic disorder had affected four of her five aunts and uncles and her father, and the balance problems and shakiness typical of HD were readily apparent in those siblings.