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.

Researchers report that neurons in the brain are connected like a social network

Neurons in the brain are wired like a social network, report researchers from Biozentrum, University of Basel. Each nerve cell has links with many others, but the strongest bonds form between the few cells most similar to each other.

5 Feb 2015

Northwestern Medicine researchers evaluate unique surgical method to treat chronic amputee pain

Northwestern Medicine® researchers are leading a new multi-center clinical trial to evaluate a unique surgical method, known as targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), to treat chronic pain that can result from limb amputation. Around a quarter of all amputees develop chronic pain in the remaining portion of their amputated limb, which can include phantom limb syndrome (pain that is perceived in the portion of the limb that is gone), and prevents many patients from using prostheses.

5 Feb 2015

Endogenous cannabinoids linked to weight gain in people with schizophrenia

Cannabinoids may be involved in the weight gain that occurs in people with schizophrenia who are treated with the antipsychotic olanzapine, according to a pilot study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology by researchers at the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal and Université de Montréal.

5 Feb 2015

Study focuses on two natural approaches to preventing breast cancer

Preventing cancer requires intimate knowledge of how cancer starts, what causes it to grow and flourish, and how to stop it in its tracks. Sometimes this comes in the form of a vaccine (the HPV vaccine for cervical and head and neck cancers), a screening (a colonoscopy for colorectal cancer) or a blood test (the PSA level test for prostate cancer).

5 Feb 2015

Novel EPR oximetry technique may help clinicians directly measure oxygen in cancer, stroke patients

A novel Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) oximetry technique will help clinicians directly measure oxygen and schedule treatments at times of high oxygen levels in cancer and stroke patients to improve outcomes, The EPR team at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine has found.

5 Feb 2015

Alzheimer's brains commonly have many neurons with more DNA and genomic copies of APP gene

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found diverse genomic changes in single neurons from the brains of Alzheimer's patients, pointing to an unexpected factor that may underpin the most common form of the disease.

5 Feb 2015

Study could lead to potential drug treatment for fighting addiction

A research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered a mechanism in the brain that is key to making cocaine seem pleasurable, a finding that could lead to a drug treatment for fighting addiction.

5 Feb 2015

Johns Hopkins researchers successfully deliver new nanoparticle gene therapy to treat glioma in rats

Despite improvements in the past few decades with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, a predictably curative treatment for glioma does not yet exist. New insights into specific gene mutations that arise in this often deadly form of brain cancer have pointed to the potential of gene therapy, but it's very difficult to effectively deliver toxic or missing genes to cancer cells in the brain.

5 Feb 2015

Resveratrol found in red grapes, peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory

A compound found in common foods such as red grapes and peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory, according to new research published by a faculty member in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

5 Feb 2015

Three Keck Medicine scientists of USC receive $4.3 million from CIRM for stem cell research

Three scientists from Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California have won grants exceeding $4.3 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for research that includes creating a temporary liver for transplant patients, finding novel ways to treat immune disorders and blood diseases and developing a new animal model for exploring diseases like heart failure, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.

5 Feb 2015

Johns Hopkins student wins NCRC's 2015 Grand Prize

The National Collegiate Research Conference sponsored by the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association awarded its 2015 Grand Prize to Mahima Sukumar, an undergraduate student at The Johns Hopkins University, working in the lab of Keri Martinowich, Ph.D., at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development.

5 Feb 2015

Brain scans can predict therapeutic responses to talk therapy

UNC School of Medicine researchers have shown that brain scans can predict which patients with clinical depression are most likely to benefit from a specific kind of talk therapy.

4 Feb 2015

Researchers identify a common pattern across different psychiatric disorders

In a study analyzing whole-brain images from nearly 16,000 people, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine identified a common pattern across a spectrum of psychiatric disorders that are widely perceived to be quite distinct.

4 Feb 2015

Epidemiologist urges people to get vaccinated against measles

Americans may be victims of their own success when it comes to the eradication of infectious diseases and take their disease-free lives for granted, says Jorge Parada, MD, hospital epidemiologist and medical director of the Infection Prevention and Control program at Loyola University Health System.

4 Feb 2015

SuperAgers have distinctly different looking brains

SuperAgers, aged 80 and above, have distinctly different looking brains than those of normal older people, according to new Northwestern Medicine research that is beginning to reveal why the memories of these cognitively elite elders don't suffer the usual ravages of time.

4 Feb 2015

TMM journal reviews latest advances in reproductive medicine

The journal Trends in Molecular Medicine reviews the latest advances in reproductive medicine--from mitochondrial replacement therapy to the infant microbiome--with a special issue on "Nurturing the Next Generation," published February 3, 2015.

4 Feb 2015

Developing national health research capacity in LMICs helps strengthen health systems

Developing national health research capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is a key element toward strengthening their health systems. Collaborations with universities in high -income countries may be an important tool in building research capacity, but often suffer from imbalanced power relations.

4 Feb 2015

Study demonstrates therapeutic potential of new class of synthetic oligonucleotides for DMD treatment

Research efforts associating scientists from the CNRS, UVSQ and INSERM within the Laboratoire END-ICAP, working in collaboration with a team from the University of Bern, has demonstrated the therapeutic potential of a new class of synthetic oligonucleotides in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) using RNA "surgery".

4 Feb 2015

New study sheds light on syndrome linked to aggressive pediatric cancer

A new study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham has revealed how children with an aggressive cancer predisposition syndrome experience a never before seen flood of mutations in their disease in just six months.

4 Feb 2015

Cooking foods at high temperatures increases Alzheimer's risk

Our new paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease provides evidence that cooking foods at high temperatures increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. This study looked at the content of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in national diets and clinical studies comparing and compared total AGEs to Alzheimer's disease rates.

4 Feb 2015

Brain News and Research

Further Reading

Researchers report that neurons in the brain are connected like a social network

Northwestern Medicine researchers evaluate unique surgical method to treat chronic amputee pain

Endogenous cannabinoids linked to weight gain in people with schizophrenia

Study focuses on two natural approaches to preventing breast cancer

Novel EPR oximetry technique may help clinicians directly measure oxygen in cancer, stroke patients

Alzheimer's brains commonly have many neurons with more DNA and genomic copies of APP gene

Study could lead to potential drug treatment for fighting addiction

Johns Hopkins researchers successfully deliver new nanoparticle gene therapy to treat glioma in rats

Resveratrol found in red grapes, peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory

Three Keck Medicine scientists of USC receive $4.3 million from CIRM for stem cell research

Johns Hopkins student wins NCRC's 2015 Grand Prize

Brain scans can predict therapeutic responses to talk therapy

Researchers identify a common pattern across different psychiatric disorders

Epidemiologist urges people to get vaccinated against measles

SuperAgers have distinctly different looking brains

TMM journal reviews latest advances in reproductive medicine

Developing national health research capacity in LMICs helps strengthen health systems

Study demonstrates therapeutic potential of new class of synthetic oligonucleotides for DMD treatment

New study sheds light on syndrome linked to aggressive pediatric cancer

Cooking foods at high temperatures increases Alzheimer's risk

Industry Focus eBook - Neurology/Neuroscience - 2nd edition eBook

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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