Genetically engineered models relevant to neurodegenerative disorders - Their value for understanding disease mechanisms and designing/testing experimental therapeutics

Significant progress in the identification of disease-specific genes for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases have provided opportunities to unders tand molecular mechanisms and to test experimental therapeutic for these di sorders. Recent works on clarifying the selective vulnerability of neurons and pathogenic mechanisms using genetically engineered mouse models of fami lial forms of Alzheimer's disease and motor neuron disease will be reviewed .