Brain News and Research

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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Scientists identify a possible lead in treatment of two childhood leukemia subtypes

Research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has identified a possible lead in treatment of two childhood leukemia subtypes known for their dramatic loss of chromosomes and poor treatment outcomes.

21 Jan 2013

Researchers identify and test first blood-based circulating miRNA biomarkers for Parkinson's

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurological condition. At present, it is usually diagnosed only when motor features are present. Hence, there is a need to develop objective and measurable biomarkers to improve PD diagnostics during its earlier stage, prior to its motor onset. In this pilot study, researchers identified and tested the first blood-based circulating microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers for PD.

21 Jan 2013

Low blood flow to the premature brain disrupts cells' ability to fully mature

Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are challenging the way pediatric neurologists think about brain injury in the pre-term infant. In a study published online in the Jan. 16 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the OHSU Doernbecher researchers report for the first time that low blood and oxygen flow to the developing brain does not, as previously thought, cause an irreversible loss of brain cells, but rather disrupts the cells' ability to fully mature.

19 Jan 2013

St. Jude Medical’s AMPLATZER Amulet device receives European CE Mark approval

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced European CE Mark approval of its AMPLATZER Amulet Left Atrial Appendage Occluder.

19 Jan 2013

Possible connection between mitochondrial CYP2D6 and Parkinson's

With a new insight into a model of Parkinson's disease, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have identified a novel target for mitigating some of the disease's toll on the brain.

19 Jan 2013

New model of tau pathology spread

Brain diseases associated with the misformed protein tau, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau pathologies, are characterized by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) comprised of pathological tau filaments.

19 Jan 2013

Leprosy bacteria able to change the make-up of Schwann cells

A discovery about the way in which bugs spread throughout the body could help to develop stem cell treatments.

19 Jan 2013

New insight into personality psychology

Extraversion does not just explain differences between how people act at social events. How extraverted you are may influence how the brain makes choices - specifically whether you choose an immediate or delayed reward, according to a new study. The work is part of a growing body of research on the vital role of understanding personality in society.

19 Jan 2013

Study confirms brain differences between people with BPD and those without

New work by University of Toronto Scarborough researchers gives the best description yet of the neural circuits that underlie a severe mental illness called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and could lead to better treatments and diagnosis.

19 Jan 2013

Research provides unique insight into the often misunderstood world of addiction

People who take cocaine over many years without becoming addicted have a brain structure which is significantly different from those individuals who developed cocaine-dependence, researchers have discovered.

18 Jan 2013

Study finds evidence of how daily changes in temperature affect the fruit fly's internal clock

New research led by a team at Queen Mary, University of London, has found evidence of how daily changes in temperature affect the fruit fly's internal clock.

18 Jan 2013

Stress in adolescence can cause severe mental illness in young adulthood

Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence — a critical time for brain development — and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause severe mental illness in those predisposed to it.

18 Jan 2013

Race bias decreases similarities in the brain's representations of faces

Racial stereotypes have been shown to have subtle and unintended consequences on how we treat members of different race groups. According to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, race bias also increases differences in the brain's representations of faces.

18 Jan 2013

Sabutoclax appears to selectively target leukemia stem cells that are responsible for relapses

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that hard-to-reach, drug-resistant leukemia stem cells (LSCs) that overexpress multiple pro-survival protein forms are sensitive - and thus vulnerable - to a novel cancer stem cell-targeting drug currently under development.

18 Jan 2013

UC Riverside research: Exercise-loving mice have larger midbrains

Is athleticism linked to brain size? To find out, researchers at the University of California, Riverside performed laboratory experiments on house mice and found that mice that have been bred for dozens of generations to be more exercise-loving have larger midbrains than those that have not been selectively bred this way.

18 Jan 2013

Study finds key association between Kallikrein 6 and malignant tumors

One of the most common types of brain tumors in adults, glioblastoma multiforme, is one of the most devastating. Even with recent advances in surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the aggressive and invasive tumors become resistant to treatment, and median survival of patients is only about 15 months. In a study published in Neuro-Oncology, researchers at Mayo Clinic identify an important association between the naturally occurring enzyme Kallikrein 6, also known as KLK6, and the malignant tumors.

18 Jan 2013

Children's Oakland recruits patients for deferiprone clinical trial to treat PKAN

A groundbreaking, international clinical trial of an iron chelation drug, deferiprone, to treat the rare and devastating neurodegenerative disease, pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), began last month at the trial's only North American site, Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland.

17 Jan 2013

SyNAPSe® Trial by BHR Pharma deemed to have no safety issues according to DSMB

BHR Pharma, LLC announced today that the SyNAPSe® Trial's independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) evaluated safety data from 803 randomized patients and determined that no issues exist; therefore, the trial may continue towards its intended completion.

17 Jan 2013

Dentate gyrus, fimbria volumes reduced in bipolar II disorder

Results from a Norwegian study suggest that the dentate gyrus and fimbria may play an important role in the pathophysiology of bipolar II disorder.

17 Jan 2013

New combination of neural imaging methods discovers brain's ability to adapt to injury

For the first time, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) have used a new combination of neural imaging methods to discover exactly how the human brain adapts to injury.

17 Jan 2013