Brains of simple sea animals could help cure neural disorders

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) – A Florida scientist studying simple sea animals called comb jellies has found the road map to a new form of brain development that could lead to treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. "There is more than one way to make a brain," University of Florida researcher Leonid Moroz, who led an international research team, told Reuters. Moroz said his research, published on Wednesday in a report in the magazine Nature, also places comb jelly-like creatures on the first branch of the animal kingdom's "tree of life," replacing and bumping up sponge-like species from the bottom rung of evolutionary progression.