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.

Baby frozen to correct brain damage at birth makes full recovery

Baby Ella was born starved of oxygen but doctors cooled her body for three days to reduce brain damage. She made a complete recovery. After birth Ella was wrapped in a special blanket filled with fluid which cooled her whole body down from the normal 37°c to 33.5°c by doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

3 Mar 2011

New study provides fascinating insight into genetic basis of bipolar disorder

A new study provides fascinating insight into the genetic basis of bipolar disorder, a highly heritable mood disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of mania and depression.

3 Mar 2011

Eisai receives FDA approval for BANZEL Oral Suspension to treat seizures linked with LGS

Eisai Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved BANZEL Oral Suspension, 40 mg/mL, for the adjunctive treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome in children 4 years and older and adults.

3 Mar 2011

Genetics and cancer research

The 20th century was dominated by breakthroughs in physics and chemistry, but the 21st century will belong to genetics and biotechnology. Cancer research is just one area among many that is being transformed by the sequencing of the human genome. This was one of the topics discussed in our recent panel with leading cancer researchers, part of our Breakthroughs: Cancer series.

3 Mar 2011

Drugs Council says alcohol fundraisers at schools must stop

The Australian National Council on Drugs called for an end to “wine drives” and alcohol fundraisers at schools. The Federal Government peak advisory body on drug use has warned schools in an open letter by chairman Dr John Herron that selling wine to parents to raise funds may be sending the wrong message to students.

3 Mar 2011

New discovery in glioma-associated metabolic changes

Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics, biomarker discovery and analysis, announces the publication of "Profiling the effects of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 mutations on the cellular metabolome", in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

3 Mar 2011

iCAD to showcase its cancer diagnostic imaging products at ECR annual meeting

iCAD, Inc., an industry-leading provider of advanced image analysis, workflow solutions and radiation therapies for the early identification and treatment of cancer, announces its featured products at the European Society of Radiology's annual meeting being held in Vienna, Austria from March 3 - 7, 2011.

3 Mar 2011

New study examines boxing injuries among children and adolescents from 1990 to 2008

The risk and nature of injury in the sport of boxing has generated a great deal of controversy in the medical community, especially in relation to youth boxing. A new study, conducted by researchers in the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, examined boxing injuries among participants 6 years of age and older from 1990 to 2008.

3 Mar 2011

Rates of cerebral palsy decline among children born prematurely

Cerebral palsy is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects motor function, more often in children born prematurely. Because cerebral palsy is a result of brain injury received shortly before, during, or soon after birth, the number of infants being diagnosed with the condition is a good indicator of the quality of perinatal and neonatal care. An article soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics indicates that the rates of cerebral palsy have declined dramatically in the past 15 years.

3 Mar 2011

Study demonstrates neuronal loss during initial stages of HIV infection in mouse model

A new mouse model closely resembles how the human body reacts to early HIV infection and is shedding light on nerve cell damage related to the disease, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

3 Mar 2011

ITI, Takeda collaborate to develop and commercialize PDE1 inhibitors for schizophrenia

Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. ("ITI") and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, today announced that they have entered into an exclusive collaboration to develop and commercialize selective phosphodiesterase type 1 (PDE1) inhibitors, discovered by ITI, for the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia. This agreement is targeted worldwide, but ITI has retained the option to co-promote with Takeda in the United States.

3 Mar 2011

Protein serum amyloid A could be a potential diagnostic biomarker for lung cancer

Scientists are reporting discovery of a protein in the blood of lung cancer patients that could be used in a test for the disease - difficult to diagnose in its earliest and most treatable stages - and to develop drugs that stop lung cancer from spreading. Their study appears in ACS's Journal of Proteome Research.

3 Mar 2011

Tobacco smoking leads to less activity in the 'executive center' of brain

Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the U.S., with more than 400,000 deaths each year attributable to smoking or its consequences. And yet teens still smoke. Indeed, smoking usually begins in the teen years, and approximately 80 percent of adult smokers became hooked by the time they were 18. Meanwhile, teens who don't take up smoking usually never do.

3 Mar 2011

Ibuprofen may protect against development of Parkinson's disease

New research suggests that ibuprofen may offer protection against developing Parkinson's disease, according to one of the largest studies to date investigating the possible benefits of the over-the-counter drug on the disease. The study is published in the March 2, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

2 Mar 2011

Roundup: States' angst and anger continues about Medicaid, health spending cuts

Ken Kewley woke up Tuesday without health insurance for the first time in nearly nine years. So did most of the 41,467 other Pennsylvanians who had been covered by adultBasic, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor that Gov. Tom Corbett shut down on Monday in one of the largest disenrollments in recent memory.

2 Mar 2011

Scientists discover specific type of human cell to treat spinal cord injuries

For the first time, scientists discovered that a specific type of human cell, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provide tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain locomotor function as well.

2 Mar 2011

Oxygen Biotherapeutics receives U.S. Army grant for studies of Oxycyte

Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ and SIX Swiss Exchange: OXBT) today announced it has received a $2,075 million two-year grant from the U.S. Army to study the Company’s proprietary Oxycyte® PFC emulsion as a therapeutic intervention focused on reducing brain damage in victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

2 Mar 2011

Viruses that are natural part of human genome may retrovirus culprit

A retrovirus that inserted itself into the human genome thousands of years ago may be responsible for some cases of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gherig’s disease. The finding, made by Johns Hopkins scientists, may eventually give researchers a new way to attack this universally fatal condition.

2 Mar 2011

Glycogen study findings shed light on possible route to treat Lafora disease

Indiana University scientists have solved a perplexing mystery regarding one of the body's main energy storage molecules, in the process shedding light on a possible route to treatment of a rare but deadly disease in teenagers.

2 Mar 2011

BRF funded projects generate over 8 times of the initial investment in additional funding

The Brain Research Foundation today announced that a recent analysis of its seed grant program indicates that BRF funded projects generate over 8 times the initial investment in additional funding. The findings were based on a sample of 47 projects over a three-year period that received $1.4 million in BRF funding and subsequently generated approximately $12 million in additional funding.

2 Mar 2011