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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.

Study identifies gene linked to higher risk of multiple sclerosis in children

Canadians have one of the highest rates of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in the world with approximately 1,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Primarily striking in adulthood, physicians and researchers with the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Diseases Network (CPDDN), a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary group, have found that MS is being increasingly diagnosed in children.

21 Mar 2011

Study unravels molecular mechanism of biomolecule RNA that plays dynamic regulatory role in protein selection

If a big bunch of your brain cells suddenly went rogue and decided to become fat cells, it could cloud your decision-making capacity a bit. Fortunately, early in an organism's development, cells make firm and more-or-less permanent decisions about whether they will live their lives as, say, skin cells, brain cells or, well, fat cells.

21 Mar 2011

Curemark reaches targeted enrollment in CM-AT Phase III clinical trials for autism

Curemark, LLC, a drug research and development company focused on the treatment of neurological diseases, announced that the company has completed its targeted enrollment of Phase III clinical trials for CM-AT, its autism treatment.

21 Mar 2011

NeuroFocus unveils wireless headset to capture brainwave activity across the full brain

NeuroFocus unveiled the first dry, wireless headset designed to capture brainwave activity across the full brain today at the 75th Annual Advertising Research Foundation conference being held at the Marriott Marquis in New York. Developed over the last three years, Mynd™ combines medical-grade technology with mobility, leapfrogging current neurological testing methods.

21 Mar 2011

Nektar initiates dosing in NKTR-181 Phase 1 clinical study for treatment of pain

Nektar Therapeutics today announced that the first subjects were dosed in a new Phase 1 clinical study to evaluate NKTR-181, the company's next-generation opioid analgesic candidate. NKTR-181 is being developed to effectively treat pain while addressing the abuse liability and serious CNS side effects associated with currently available opioid therapies.

21 Mar 2011

Equipois debuts x-Ar exoskeletal arm support system for manual tasks at Applied Ergonomics Conference

Equipois Inc., designer and manufacturer of the zeroG® mechanical arm technology, debuted today the x-Ar™, the world's first exoskeletal arm support system for manual tasks, at the Applied Ergonomics Conference in Orlando, Florida.

21 Mar 2011

Researchers baffled with increase in migraine rates

Migraine rates in a comprehensive Norwegian health study have climbed by 1% in a decade -- that may not sound like much, but in the Norwegian context, it means 45,000 more migraine sufferers -- and if the trend were to hold for the European Union, that would be an additional 5 million more people plagued by migraines. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are baffled by the cause of this trend.

21 Mar 2011

Biochemical process that lasts a long time causes memory storage

You may remember the color of your loved one's eyes for years. But how?

21 Mar 2011

Drug delivery breakthrough for Alzheimer’s disease

Till date all attempts to get drugs into the brain were countered by the blood-brain barrier - the natural defense against potentially harmful chemicals floating around the body. However this new finding from a team from University of Oxford shows that now scientists have successfully switched off a gene implicated in Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of mice by exploiting tiny particles naturally released by cells, called exosomes.

21 Mar 2011

Insight into hereditary diseases

Hereditary diseases such as epilepsy or various coordination disorders may be caused by changes in nerve cells of the cerebellum, which do not set in until after birth. This is reported by Bochum's neuroscientists in the Journal of Neuroscience.

19 Mar 2011

U-M professor shows how plasticity of brain restores critical functions related to learning, memory

When Geoffrey Murphy, Ph.D., talks about plastic structures, he's not talking about the same thing as Mr. McGuire in The Graduate. To Murphy, an associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School, plasticity refers to the brain's ability to change as we learn.

19 Mar 2011

BioMarin announces preliminary results from ADAPT in patients suffering from PKU

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. announced today preliminary results from ADAPT (A Diversified Approach for PKU Treatment) in an abstract (Abstract #91, Mental Health Screening in Phenylketoniuria Clinic) presented by Barbara Burton, MD at the 2011 annual American College of Medical Genetics conference in Vancouver, Canada.

19 Mar 2011

Opinions: Japan nuclear concerns; cash on delivery; G20's role in ensuring global food security

"What we are learning in the age of globalization is that frightening and tragic events in any part of the world can trigger amygdala responses in people thousands of miles away. The amygdala, a tiny almond-shaped body inside the human brain, controls fearfulness and, more importantly, anxiety," Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in a CNN opinion piece.

19 Mar 2011

Scientists discover enzyme family that plays a crucial role in regulating cell motility

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered that members of an enzyme family found in humans and throughout the plant and animal kingdoms play a crucial role in regulating cell motility. Their findings suggest an entirely new strategy for treating conditions ranging from diabetic ulcers to metastatic cancer.

19 Mar 2011

Scientists to develop new MR imaging techniques for brain study

A Norwegian research centre is developing new magnetic resonance imaging techniques to study the brain. This could have impact for victims of brain damage as well as Alzheimer patients.

19 Mar 2011

Avid, Eli Lilly receive FDA complete response letter for Amyvid NDA

Eli Lilly and Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Inc., have received a complete response letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for their New Drug Application for Amyvid, a Positron Emission Tomography imaging agent under investigation for the detection of beta-amyloid plaque in the brains of living patients.

18 Mar 2011

Cortex reports net loss of $0.01 per share for quarter ended December 31, 2010

Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. reported a net loss applicable to common stock of $984,000, or $0.01 per share for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 compared with a net loss of $1,599,000, or $0.02 per share for the corresponding prior year period.

18 Mar 2011

C&EN: Health tracking biosensor may be closer to reality than many people think

Imagine a sensor implanted in your body that signals when you're getting sick - almost like the "check engine" light in a car. That scenario sounds like pure fantasy, but it may be closer to reality than many people think, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

18 Mar 2011

Researchers discover a type of 'cellular bilingualism' in brain

A team of researchers from the University of Montreal and McGill University have discovered a type of "cellular bilingualism" - a phenomenon that allows a single neuron to use two different methods of communication to exchange information.

18 Mar 2011

Study reveals new mechanism underlying reproduction in plants

A team of researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci-ncia (IGC), Portugal, discovered that pollen, the organ that contains the plant male gametes, communicate with the pistil, their female counterpart, using a mechanism commonly observed in the nervous system of animals.

18 Mar 2011

Brain News and Research

Further Reading

Study identifies gene linked to higher risk of multiple sclerosis in children

Study unravels molecular mechanism of biomolecule RNA that plays dynamic regulatory role in protein selection

Curemark reaches targeted enrollment in CM-AT Phase III clinical trials for autism

NeuroFocus unveils wireless headset to capture brainwave activity across the full brain

Nektar initiates dosing in NKTR-181 Phase 1 clinical study for treatment of pain

Equipois debuts x-Ar exoskeletal arm support system for manual tasks at Applied Ergonomics Conference

Researchers baffled with increase in migraine rates

Biochemical process that lasts a long time causes memory storage

Drug delivery breakthrough for Alzheimer’s disease

Insight into hereditary diseases

U-M professor shows how plasticity of brain restores critical functions related to learning, memory

BioMarin announces preliminary results from ADAPT in patients suffering from PKU

Opinions: Japan nuclear concerns; cash on delivery; G20's role in ensuring global food security

Scientists discover enzyme family that plays a crucial role in regulating cell motility

Scientists to develop new MR imaging techniques for brain study

Avid, Eli Lilly receive FDA complete response letter for Amyvid NDA

Cortex reports net loss of $0.01 per share for quarter ended December 31, 2010

C&EN: Health tracking biosensor may be closer to reality than many people think

Researchers discover a type of 'cellular bilingualism' in brain

Study reveals new mechanism underlying reproduction in plants

Industry Focus eBook - Cell & Gene Therapy (1st Edition) eBook

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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