Williams syndrome, Boaz Barak: “So we will test the drug that improves cognitive functions for the first time on humans”

In two separate Italian conferences a few months ago the professor Boaz Barak41-year-old scientist who heads the neurogenetics laboratory at the School of Psychological Sciences and the Tel Aviv University Sagol School of Neuroscienceillustrated his studies on a drug, clemastine, a low-cost over-the-counter antihistamine which, if taken, would have the potential to improve cognitive, motor and behavioral functions in people with Williams syndrome: it would act on the reconstitution of myelin , the substance that constitutes the sheath of neurons and allows the passage of electrical impulses along the nervous system and which, as discovered in Barak’s laboratory, is considerably thinned in individuals with SW, creating neural dysfunctions of various…