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.

MindSpec launches new science outreach website: Autism Reading Room

MindSpec proudly announces the public launch of its new science outreach website, Autism Reading Room.

30 May 2012

Use of transplanted induced pluripotent stem cells could lead to new treatments for HD

Researchers from South Korea, Sweden, and the United States have collaborated on a project to restore neuron function to parts of the brain damaged by Huntington's disease (HD) by successfully transplanting HD-induced pluripotent stem cells into animal models.

30 May 2012

CHOC Children's research project receives $5.5M CIRM grant

A CHOC Children's research project, under the direction of Philip H. Schwartz, Ph.D., senior scientist at the CHOC Children's Research Institute and managing director of the facility's National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource, has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

30 May 2012

NAC may be an effective therapy for some features of autism

A specific antioxidant supplement may be an effective therapy for some features of autism, according to a pilot trial from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital that involved 31 children with the disorder.

30 May 2012

Exendin-4 significantly minimizes damage in TBI animal models

Although the death toll is relatively low for people who suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI), it can have severe, life-long consequences for brain function. TBI can impair a patient's mental abilities, impact memory and behavior, and lead to dramatic personality changes. And long-term medical treatment carries a high economic cost.

30 May 2012

Secreted vesicles play role in spread of cancer

Cancer researchers have known for well over a century that different tumor types spread only to specific, preferred organs. But no one has been able to determine the mechanisms of organ specific metastasis, the so-called "soil and seed" theory of 1889. New details that could help shed light on this hypothesis have been provided by a team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and their collaborators, proposing a new mechanism controlling cancer metastasis that offers fresh diagnostic and treatment potential.

29 May 2012

Better education early in life may help protect cognitive abilities

Exposure to solvents at work may be associated with reduced thinking skills later in life for those who have less than a high school education, according to a study published in the May 29, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

29 May 2012

Including smokers in donor pool improves survival rates for patients on lung transplant waiting lists and should be continued

New research shows that lung transplant patients who receive the lungs of smokers have a better overall chance of survival than those who remain on waiting lists, despite the fact that they tend to survive for a shorter period after transplantation than those who receive the lungs of non-smokers.

29 May 2012

EMA CHMP issues positive opinion to Eisai’s Fycompa for treatment of partial-onset seizures

Eisai announced today that the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has issued a positive opinion for the use of Fycompa (perampanel) as an adjunctive treatment of partial-onset seizures, with or without secondarily generalised seizures, in patients with epilepsy aged 12 years and older.

29 May 2012

Bioengineers develop first structure to grow small human blood vessels

Mice and monkeys don't develop diseases in the same way that humans do. Nevertheless, after medical researchers have studied human cells in a Petri dish, they have little choice but to move on to study mice and primates. University of Washington bioengineers have developed the first structure to grow small human blood vessels, creating a 3-D test bed that offers a better way to study disease, test drugs and perhaps someday grow human tissues for transplant.

29 May 2012

Giant cells protect fungus Cryptococcus neoformans during infection

Giant cells called "titan cells" protect the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans during infection, according to two University of Minnesota researchers. Kirsten Nielsen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of microbiology, and recent Ph.D. recipient Laura Okagaki believe their discovery could help develop new ways to fight infections caused by Cryptococcus.

28 May 2012

New insight into immune-cell movement patterns

By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement strategy to track down parasites that is similar to strategies that predators such as monkeys, sharks and blue-fin tuna use to hunt their prey.

28 May 2012

Tβ4 offers both neurorestoration and neuroprotection after TBI

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. reported that data showing that Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) "provides both neuroprotection and neurorestoration after traumatic brain injury (TBI)," was published in the current (May 2012) edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery, 116:1081-1092.

28 May 2012

Researchers develop new technique that converts stem cells into brain cells

A new technique that converts stem cells into brain cells has been developed by researchers at Lund University. The method is simpler, quicker and safer than previous research has shown and opens the doors to a shorter route to clinical cell transplants.

28 May 2012

UC Irvine immunologist to create new line of neural stem cells for MS

A UC Irvine immunologist will receive $4.8 million to create a new line of neural stem cells that can be used to treat multiple sclerosis.

28 May 2012

UCSD scientists receive new CIRM grants to conduct stem cell-based research

Five scientists from the University of California, San Diego and its School of Medicine have been awarded almost $12 million in new grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to conduct stem cell-based research into regenerating spinal cord injuries, repairing gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and finding new drugs to treat heart failure and Alzheimer's disease.

28 May 2012

City of Hope receives CIRM grant to develop T cell-based immunotherapy against glioma

City of Hope was granted a $5,217,004 early translational research award by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support the development of a T cell-based immunotherapy that re-directs a patient's own immune response against glioma stem cells.

28 May 2012

EMA CHMP adopts positive opinion for Pfizer’s axitinib to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma

Pfizer announced today that the Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion regarding the marketing authorization of axitinib in the European Union (EU), for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a type of advanced kidney cancer, after failure of prior treatment with sunitinib or a cytokine.

25 May 2012

Immune system involved in removing Alzheimer's-causing substance in the brain

Recent work in mice suggested that the immune system is involved in removing beta-amyloid, the main Alzheimer's-causing substance in the brain. Researchers have now shown for the first time that this may apply in humans.

25 May 2012

Brain can rewire even at an advanced age

"This study overturns decades-old beliefs that most of the brain is hard-wired before a critical period that ends when one is a young adult," said MPFI neuroscientist Marcel Oberlaender, PhD, first author on the paper.

25 May 2012