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.

Raising dopamine levels in frontal cortex reduces impulsivity in healthy adults

Raising levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the frontal cortex of the brain significantly decreased impulsivity in healthy adults, in a study conducted by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

26 Jul 2012

ZOLOFT holds promise against cryptococcal meningitis

New research conducted by biologists at Texas A&M University suggests that ZOLOFT, one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the world, also packs a potential preventative bonus - potent mechanisms capable of inhibiting deadly fungal infections.

26 Jul 2012

Malaria misdiagnosis: an interview with Dr Toby Leslie

Malaria is caused by a multi-staged parasite which is transmitted by the bite of infected female anopheles mosquitoes. It affects millions of people and kills more than 500,000 people throughout the world every year.

26 Jul 2012

Combination of two stress hormones shuts down brain activity for goal-directed behaviour

Cognition psychologists at the Ruhr-Universit-t together with colleagues from the University Hospital Bergmannsheil (Prof. Dr. Martin Tegenthoff) have discovered why stressed persons are more likely to lapse back into habits than to behave goal-directed. The team of PD Dr. Lars Schwabe and Prof. Dr. Oliver Wolf from the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have mimicked a stress situation in the body using drugs.

26 Jul 2012

Multi-center clinical trial results demonstrate safety and efficacy of carfilzomib for multiple myeloma

Researchers from John Theurer Cancer Center at HackensackUMC, one of the nation's 50 best hospitals for cancer, played leading roles in three separate multi-center studies with the new proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib published in Blood, a major peer-reviewed scientific journal.

26 Jul 2012

AHAF announces glaucoma and macular degeneration research grants

The American Health Assistance Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a history of funding breakthrough research on age-related vision diseases, announced today that it has awarded 21 new grants totaling $2.1 million to scientists worldwide who are studying glaucoma and macular degeneration. The two conditions are the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the world.

26 Jul 2012

ImmunoCellular receives FDA IND clearance for ICT-121 Phase I trial in glioblastoma multiforme

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given clearance to a physician sponsored investigative new drug (IND) application to initiate a Phase I clinical trial of ICT-121, IMUC's novel dendritic-cell-based vaccine targeting CD-133, an antigen that is highly expressed by multiple solid tumors.

26 Jul 2012

Single event of brain trauma can lead to Alzheimer’s

A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer’s. The paper, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, identifies the complex mechanisms that result in a rapid and robust post-injury elevation of the enzyme, BACE1, in the brain. These results may lead to the development of a drug treatment that targets this mechanism to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

25 Jul 2012

Brain response to emotion altered in BD youth

Results from a US study show that adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD) have altered activation in certain brain regions in response to facial expressions of emotion.

25 Jul 2012

Reduced white matter integrity in schizophrenia patients

Patients with schizophrenia show widespread reductions in white matter integrity, particularly in fronto-temporal regions, researchers report.

25 Jul 2012

Increased distribution of neurosurgeons may reduce risk of motor vehicle accident-related deaths

Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire have found an association between increasing the distribution of neurosurgeons throughout the United States and decreasing the risk of death from motor vehicle accidents (MVAs).

25 Jul 2012

NIH grants aim at creating 3-D tissue chips to help identify drug safety signals

Seventeen National Institutes of Health grants are aimed at creating 3-D chips with living cells and tissues that accurately model the structure and function of human organs such as the lung, liver and heart. Once developed, these tissue chips will be tested with compounds known to be safe or toxic in humans to help identify the most reliable drug safety signals - ultimately advancing research to help predict the safety of potential drugs in a faster, more cost-effective way.

25 Jul 2012

MASL protein from plant's seeds may halt spread of melanoma

An international team of scientists led by Gary Goldberg, PhD, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine (UMDNJ-SOM), has found that a protein from the seeds of a plant used for centuries in traditional medicines may be able to halt the spread of melanoma, a lethal form of skin cancer.

25 Jul 2012

NBTI participates in ICT-107 phase II trial for glioblastoma multiforme

Researchers at Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute (NBTI) are seeking to understand if a vaccine made from a patient's own blood cells may slow the growth of a type of brain tumor.

25 Jul 2012

New tool uses fluorescence to distinguish cancerous tissue from normal one in low-grade tumors

A new probe developed collaboratively at Norris Cotton Cancer Center and Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering uses an innovative fluorescence-reading technology to help brain surgeons distinguish cancerous tissue from normal tissue. The probe tool, now already in use at the Cancer Center for brain surgery, may one day be used for surgeries for a variety of cancers.

25 Jul 2012

Elan second quarter total revenue increases 6% to $288.0 million

Elan Corporation, plc today reported its second quarter and first half 2012 financial results.

25 Jul 2012

Researchers discover bats as reservoir of infections

Measles, mumps, pneumonia, influenza and encephalitis in man, Carré's disease in dogs, Ovine Rinderpest (PPR)… all of these diseases are caused by viruses from the same family: Paramyxoviridae. A vast international study, carried out in collaboration with IRD researchers and published in Nature communications has led to the discovery of more than 60 new species of these dangerous infectious agents, almost double the number previously recorded. This family of highly diverse pathogens affects all animals, from canines to fowl, cattle and humans.

25 Jul 2012

Mice have different neural subsystem associated with instinctually important smells

A new study finds that mice have a distinct neural subsystem that links the nose to the brain and is associated with instinctually important smells such as those emitted by predators. That insight, published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, prompts the question whether mice and other mammals have specially hardwired neural circuitry to trigger instinctive behavior in response to certain smells.

25 Jul 2012

Moderate-to-severe TBI can disrupt proteins that regulate enzyme associated with Alzheimer's

A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer's.

25 Jul 2012

Vanderbilt researchers receives new $2.1M grant to develop microbrain bioreactor

Take a millionth of a human brain and squeeze it into a special chamber the size of a mustard seed. Link it to a second chamber filled with cerebral spinal fluid and thread both of them with artificial blood vessels in order to create a microenvironment that makes the neurons and other brain cells behave as if they were in a living brain. Then surround the chambers with a battery of sensors that monitor how the cells respond when exposed to minute quantities of dietary toxins, disease organisms or new drugs under development.

25 Jul 2012

Brain News and Research

Further Reading

Raising dopamine levels in frontal cortex reduces impulsivity in healthy adults

ZOLOFT holds promise against cryptococcal meningitis

Malaria misdiagnosis: an interview with Dr Toby Leslie

Combination of two stress hormones shuts down brain activity for goal-directed behaviour

Multi-center clinical trial results demonstrate safety and efficacy of carfilzomib for multiple myeloma

AHAF announces glaucoma and macular degeneration research grants

ImmunoCellular receives FDA IND clearance for ICT-121 Phase I trial in glioblastoma multiforme

Single event of brain trauma can lead to Alzheimer’s

Brain response to emotion altered in BD youth

Reduced white matter integrity in schizophrenia patients

Increased distribution of neurosurgeons may reduce risk of motor vehicle accident-related deaths

NIH grants aim at creating 3-D tissue chips to help identify drug safety signals

MASL protein from plant's seeds may halt spread of melanoma

NBTI participates in ICT-107 phase II trial for glioblastoma multiforme

New tool uses fluorescence to distinguish cancerous tissue from normal one in low-grade tumors

Elan second quarter total revenue increases 6% to $288.0 million

Researchers discover bats as reservoir of infections

Mice have different neural subsystem associated with instinctually important smells

Moderate-to-severe TBI can disrupt proteins that regulate enzyme associated with Alzheimer's

Vanderbilt researchers receives new $2.1M grant to develop microbrain bioreactor

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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