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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.

FDA removes partial clinical hold on CytRx's aldoxorubicin clinical trials

CytRx Corporation, a biopharmaceutical research and development company specializing in oncology, today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration has removed the partial clinical hold on the Company's aldoxorubicin clinical trials.

20 Jan 2015

Doctors carry out first organ transplant from UK newborn

The very first successful organ donation from a newborn carried out in the UK is reported in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

20 Jan 2015

Study: Iodine deficiency during pregnancy can impair child's intellectual development

Pregnant women in Austria commonly suffer from an iodine deficiency. This may have a negative impact on the development of their unborn child's brain. These are the key findings of a joint study by the Endocrinology and Metabolism Unit at the University Department of Internal Medicine III together with the University Department of Gynaecology at the MedUni Vienna and AGES, which have now been published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

20 Jan 2015

Researchers identify novel life-preserving circuit responsible for recognizing threats

Our existence depends on a bit of evolutionary genius aptly nicknamed "fight or flight." But where in our brain does the alarm first go off, and what other parts of the brain are mobilized to express fear and remember to avoid danger in the future?

20 Jan 2015

CUMC researcher develops new 3D microscope that can help view living things at very high speeds

Opening new doors for biomedical and neuroscience research, Elizabeth Hillman, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering and of radiology at Columbia University Medical Center, has developed a new microscope that can image living things in 3D at very high speeds.

20 Jan 2015

Brains of individuals with ASD display unique synchronization patterns

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been studied for many years, but there are still many more questions than answers. For example, some research into the brain functions of individuals with autism spectrum have found a lack of synchronization ('connectivity') between different parts of the brain that normally work in tandem.

20 Jan 2015

Brain uses separate pathway to recall old fear memories

People with anxiety disorders, such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), often experience prolonged and exaggerated fearfulness. Now, an animal study suggests that this might involve disruption of a gradual shifting of brain circuitry for retrieving fear memories. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered in rats that an old fear memory is recalled by a separate brain pathway from the one originally used to recall it when it was fresh.

20 Jan 2015

CSHL researchers describe new pathway that controls fear memories in the mouse brain

Some people have no fear, like that 17-year-old kid who drives like a maniac. But for the nearly 40 million adults who suffer from anxiety disorders, an overabundance of fear rules their lives. Debilitating anxiety prevents them from participating in life's most mundane moments, from driving a car to riding in an elevator.

20 Jan 2015

Tiny lumps of calcium phosphate may trigger age-related macular degeneration

New research from scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has found that tiny lumps of calcium phosphate may be an important triggering factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a degenerative eye disease that can cause severe vision loss and blindness.

20 Jan 2015

Elekta helps new Australian cancer center make seamless transition to MOSAIQ OIS

As part of consolidating the cancer care of four Western Australian public services into a single, multi-disciplinary facility, the clinics will transition from their existing oncology information systems (OIS) to Elekta's MOSAIQ OIS.

From Elekta 19 Jan 2015

Scientists explore how the brain adapts to visual restoration

Recent scientific advances have meant that eyesight can be partially restored to those who previously would have been blind for life. However, scientists at the University of Montreal and the University of Trento have discovered that the rewiring of the senses that occurs in the brains of the long-term blind means that visual restoration may never be complete.

19 Jan 2015

Almost 42% of US drinkers use alcohol-interactive prescription medications, study finds

Approximately 71 percent of American adults drink alcohol. While alcohol interacts negatively with a number of commonly prescribed medications, little is known on a population level about the use of alcohol-interactive (AI) prescription medication among US drinkers. A new study has found that almost 42 percent of drinkers in the US population have used one or more alcohol-interactive prescription medications.

17 Jan 2015

Abnormal attachment of sugar to BACE1 enzyme leads to formation of Aβ plaques in the brain

Researchers at the RIKEN-Max Planck Joint Research Center in Japan have demonstrated that hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer's disease can be reduced when sugars are prevented from binding to one of the key enzymes implicated in the disease. The new findings, reported in EMBO Molecular Medicine, show that abnormal attachment of a particular sugar to the enzyme BACE1 is a critical factor leading to the formation of Aβ plaques in the brain, and that plaques were reduced and cognitive performance improved when this action was prevented in mice through loss of the enzyme GnT-III.

17 Jan 2015

Study: Stem cells derived from human female amnion have anti-inflammatory effects

Stem cells derived from human amnion have for some time been considered promising for cell therapies because of their ease of access, ability to differentiate, and absence of ethical issues.

17 Jan 2015

Researchers gain new insight into fragile X syndrome

Scientists have gained new insight into fragile X syndrome -- the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability -- by studying the case of a person without the disorder, but with two of its classic symptoms.

17 Jan 2015

Nonmotor symptoms cluster in Parkinson’s disease patients

Nonmotor symptoms tend to appear in specific clusters in patients with Parkinson’s disease and often predate the onset of motor symptoms, research shows.

16 Jan 2015

JHU Applied Physics Laboratory awarded $4 million to develop retinal prosthesis system

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Maryland, has received $4 million in funding from the Mann Fund to develop a next-generation retinal prosthesis system. The Mann Fund was created by philanthropist Alfred E. Mann 15 years ago to support the development of biomedical technologies.

16 Jan 2015

Researchers uncover new gene tied to incurable eye disorder

An exhaustive hereditary analysis of a large Louisiana family with vision issues has uncovered a new gene tied to an incurable eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, according to an examination led by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

16 Jan 2015

Study: Century-old drug may help treat autism

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect 1 to 2 percent of children in the United States. Hundreds of genetic and environmental factors have been shown to increase the risk of ASD. Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine previously reported that a drug used for almost a century to treat trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, reversed environmental autism-like symptoms in mice.

16 Jan 2015

Report: Folic acid saves babies from neural tube defects

Fortifying grain foods with the B vitamin folic acid has saved about 1,300 babies every year from being born with serious birth defects of the brain and spine known as neural tube defects (NTDs), according to new data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

16 Jan 2015

Brain News and Research

Further Reading

FDA removes partial clinical hold on CytRx's aldoxorubicin clinical trials

Doctors carry out first organ transplant from UK newborn

Study: Iodine deficiency during pregnancy can impair child's intellectual development

Researchers identify novel life-preserving circuit responsible for recognizing threats

CUMC researcher develops new 3D microscope that can help view living things at very high speeds

Brains of individuals with ASD display unique synchronization patterns

Brain uses separate pathway to recall old fear memories

CSHL researchers describe new pathway that controls fear memories in the mouse brain

Tiny lumps of calcium phosphate may trigger age-related macular degeneration

Elekta helps new Australian cancer center make seamless transition to MOSAIQ OIS

Scientists explore how the brain adapts to visual restoration

Almost 42% of US drinkers use alcohol-interactive prescription medications, study finds

Abnormal attachment of sugar to BACE1 enzyme leads to formation of Aβ plaques in the brain

Study: Stem cells derived from human female amnion have anti-inflammatory effects

Researchers gain new insight into fragile X syndrome

Nonmotor symptoms cluster in Parkinson’s disease patients

JHU Applied Physics Laboratory awarded $4 million to develop retinal prosthesis system

Researchers uncover new gene tied to incurable eye disorder

Study: Century-old drug may help treat autism

Report: Folic acid saves babies from neural tube defects

Industry Focus eBook - Cell & Gene Therapy (1st 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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