In the U.S. alone, 2.8 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year and seek medical care.1,2 However, there are no FDA approved therapies for effective treatment of TBI (or concussion) patients. Current medications are limited to only reducing secondary damage to the brain following TBI, such as using diuretics to reduce the pressure inside the brain by increasing urine output.

Cell-type specific manipulation of neural circuits is required for the treatment of neurological disorders such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Precise control of neural circuits will enable the development of neuromodulation therapies for these debilitating conditions. Existing technologies to control neural activity offer limited possibilities.

Presidents of San Antonio’s four largest research institutions today announced they are providing $800,000, collectively, for a major initiative in precision therapeutics. The process of precision therapeutics ultimately leads to breakthrough treatments that can be individualized to specific patient populations.

Cognitive deficits are major disabling impairments associated with autism and schizophrenia. Because theunderlying genetic and cellular mechanisms of such deficits are still poorly understood, mechanism-basedtherapeutic options do not exist, limiting the effective integration of patients into society. Previous clinical workhas shown that executive functions such as working memory and cognitive flexibility start to lag behind fromadolescence to adulthood in individuals with autism and schizophrenia.

Transposable elements, known colloquially as ?jumping genes,? constitute approximately 45% of the humangenome. Cells utilize epigenetic defenses to limit transposable element jumping, including formation of silencingheterochromatin and generation of piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), small RNAs that facilitate clearance oftransposable element transcripts. Transposable element activation has recently been identified as a keymediator of neuronal death in tauopathies, a group of neurodegenerative disorders that are pathologicallydefined by deposits of tau protein in the brain.