Brain News and Research

RSS

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.

New data from Zafgen's ZGN-433 Phase 1b study on obesity presented at ADA 2011

Zafgen, Inc., a pharmaceutical company pioneering novel obesity therapeutics to help the body regain and sustain a lean, healthy state by targeting imbalances in fat metabolism, today announced new data from a Phase 1b study of ZGN-433, a selective methionine aminopeptidase 2 inhibitor (MetAP2), which showed a significant improvement in cardiovascular risk markers in severely obese subjects.

27 Jun 2011

Department of Defense awards Impel Phase II SBIR grant for blood-brain barrier bypass technology

Impel NeuroPharma, a medical device company whose technology is designed to enable pharmaceutical drugs to bypass the blood-brain barrier and enter the central nervous system (CNS), today announced that it was selected to receive a Phase II Small Business Investigational Research (SBIR) grant from the Department of Defense's Chemical and Biological Defense SBIR Program entitled, "Blood Brain Barrier Drug Delivery of Therapeutics for Chemical Warfare Agents."

24 Jun 2011

Scientists gain insight into how brains process memory and sense of orientation

How do our brains process memory and sense of orientation? Scientists are gaining insight by studying rats with implanted genes that prompt neurons to fire on command.

24 Jun 2011

Combined pediatric neuroscience programs at Barrow Neurological Institute

St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center and Phoenix Children's Hospital jointly announced this week their pediatric neuroscience programs are combining under the newly formed Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

24 Jun 2011

Bodies resist weight loss efforts when food intake is reduced drastically

If you've been trying to lose weight and suspect your body's working against you, you may be right, according to a University of Illinois study published in Obesity.

24 Jun 2011

Epilepsy may arise from complex mixture of altered ion channels

Imagine two flat screen televisions tuned to the same channel and sitting side-by-side. From a distance, their pictures are virtually the same, however up close, you can see subtle variations in the pixels - one blurred here, another dropped out there.

24 Jun 2011

Protein globin E helps avian eyes 'breathe' and contributes to visual acuity

Say what you will about bird brains, but our feathered friends sure have us -- and all the other animals on the planet -- beat in the vision department, and that has a bit to do with how their brains develop.

24 Jun 2011

ABA honors Acorda Therapeutics president with 2011 Stevie Award

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. announced that Ron Cohen, M.D., President and CEO of Acorda Therapeutics, was awarded the 2011 Stevie Award for Executive of the Year in the Health Products & Services category at the 9th Annual American Business Awards (ABA) ceremony held on June 20, 2011.

24 Jun 2011

Discovery sheds new light on initiation of vision process

A discovery by a team of researchers led by a Syracuse University physicist sheds new light on how the vision process is initiated. For almost 50 years, scientists have believed that light signals could not be initiated unless special light-receptor molecules in the retinal cells first changed their shape in a process called isomerization.

24 Jun 2011

ViroPharma receives positive European CHMP opinion for Buccolam to treat acute seizures

ViroPharma Incorporated today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion recommending approval of a Pediatric Use Marketing Authorization (PUMA) for Buccolam, for treatment of prolonged, acute, convulsive seizures in infants, toddlers, children and adolescents, from 3 months to less than 18 years.

24 Jun 2011

Cocaine contaminated with livestock de-worming drug causes painful purpura

If the obvious reasons for avoiding recreational drug use aren't off-putting enough, physicians have yet another detrimental consequence to add to the list - crusty, purplish areas of dead skin that are extremely painful and can open the door to nasty infections.

24 Jun 2011

New strategy to prevent amputations

Blood vessels and supporting cells appear to be pivotal partners in repairing nerves ravaged by diabetic neuropathy, and nurturing their partnership with nerve cells might make the difference between success and failure in experimental efforts to regrow damaged nerves, Johns Hopkins researchers report in a new study.

24 Jun 2011

Scientists uncover new therapeutic target for Huntington's disease

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified compounds that appear to inhibit a signaling pathway in Huntington's disease, a finding that may eventually lead to a potential drug therapy to help slow the progression of degenerative nerve disorders.

24 Jun 2011

Growth-braking tumor-suppressor gene slows growth of childhood brain tumors

Johns Hopkins researchers have found a likely explanation for the slow growth of the most common childhood brain tumor, pilocytic astrocytoma. Using tests on a new cell-based model of the tumor, they concluded that the initial process of tumor formation switches on a growth-braking tumor-suppressor gene, in a process similar to that seen in skin moles.

24 Jun 2011

Research offers avenue for creating Alzheimer's and HIV therapeutics

A new advance by UCLA biochemists has brought scientists one step closer to developing treatments that could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

24 Jun 2011

Ketogenic diet reduces seizures in mice through adenosine A1 receptors

Some individuals with epilepsy fail to respond to treatment with conventional drugs but benefit from consuming a ketogenic diet - a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet similar to the more commonly known Atkins diet.

24 Jun 2011

New research helps explain how memories are stored at synapses

Have a tough time remembering where you put your keys, learning a new language or recalling names at a cocktail party? New research from the Lisman Laboratory at Brandeis University points to a molecule that is central to the process by which memories are stored in the brain. A paper published in the June 22 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience describes the new findings.

24 Jun 2011

USPTO issues Notice of Allowance for Neurocrine's NBI-98854 to treat tardive dyskinesia

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for the Company's proprietary Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 inhibitor, NBI-98854.

24 Jun 2011

Hunger hormone likely to cause stress-linked complex eating behaviors

We are one step closer to deciphering why some stressed people indulge in chocolate, mashed potatoes, ice cream and other high-calorie, high-fat comfort foods. UT Southwestern Medical Center-led findings, in a mouse study, suggest that ghrelin - the so-called "hunger hormone" - is involved in triggering this reaction to high stress situations.

24 Jun 2011

Anticholinergic drugs might increase risk of cognitive impairment, death in older people

A side effect of many commonly used drugs appears to increase the risks of both cognitive impairment and death in older people, according to new research led by the University of East Anglia.

24 Jun 2011