Diseases of the nervous system affect people of all ages and can be extremely debilitating. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth and Parkinson’s disease is the 14th leading cause of death in the United States. Other afflictions such as multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury may not be fatal, but they can greatly reduce quality of life for those affected and their family members. Understanding the pathology of these neural diseases is critical to the search for new treatments and cures.