Medical Uses of Sea Slugs

May 13, 1999
From: Jonathan Choi

hello,

I am a premed student in houston, Texas. if you look on the web you will see many articles about medical research and sea slugs. they are especially useful in neurological studies b/c of their large neurons which are easy to see and study.

jonathan choi

fu_gwah@hotmail.com

Choi, J., 1999 (May 13) Medical Uses of Sea Slugs. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/854

Dear Jonathan'

Thanks for your note. As you note, in recent years Sea Hares have become very important laboratory animals for the study of the brain and nervous system. They have a relatively simple "brain" which consists of small clumps of nerve cells (ganglia) in which the individual cells are easy to see. It is therefore easy to study the workings of individual brain cells to find our how more complex brains like ours may have evolved. A good place for information about this research is at the Brainsurf site based on work done in learning and memory in the lab of Dr. Edgar T. Walters at UT Medical School, Houston, Texas. Another site, which is more for professionals, is The Aplysia Hometank.

Kandel's two books are important resources both for physiologists and biologists.

Kandel,ER (1979): Behavioural Biology of Aplysia. San Francisco, W.H.Freeman&Co.463pp.

Kandel,ER (1976): Cellular Basis of Behaviour. An introduction to behavioural neurobiology. W.H.Freeman & Co., San Francisco. 727 pages.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 1999 (May 13). Comment on Medical Uses of Sea Slugs by Jonathan Choi. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/854

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