Researchers in the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine have engineered a live bacterium to function as the delivery driver for Levodopa, the gold-standard drug for treatment of the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The UGA team developed and tested the probiotic bacterium Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 to continuously produce and deliver L-DOPA, which is converted to dopamine in the brain. This new living therapy addresses motor deficits that occur after prolonged L-DOPA use and could mean fewer pills and better quality of life for people with Parkinson's disease.

Rice bioengineers have demonstrated a nonsurgical way to quiet a seizure-relevant brain circuit using a method that merges ultrasound, gene therapy and chemogenetics.