Dr. Shira Knafo (second from left) with her medical team. Photo: Universidad del Pais Vasco.

An Israeli research professor, heading an international team of scientists, has discovered a way to inhibit the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Monday.

Dr. Shira Knafo, head of the Molecular Cognition Laboratory at BioCruces Health Research Institute in Basque Country, Spain was able to do this by studying the plasticity of the brain, fundamental to learning and memory.

According to a paper she and her team published last month in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Knafo discovered that the synapses of the brain can be made more plastic using a certain small protein, which inhibits the processes normally associated with impairment, from depression to full-fledged cognitive disability. Brain-impaired mice administered the protein were reportedly restored to full cognitive function.