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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.

Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to support 2010 National PF Week

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) today expressed its support for the 2010 National Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Week activities, to be held from September 11-18, 2010 in Washington D.C.

20 Aug 2010

FDA Advisory Committee votes in favor of expanding pain indications for Eli Lilly's Cymbalta

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs Advisory Committee voted 8-6 in favor of expanding the pain indications for Eli Lilly and Company's (NYSE: LLY) Cymbalta® (duloxetine HCl) to a broader pain population that will be further defined by the FDA, if approved.

20 Aug 2010

Renin test can predict appropriate drugs for BP patients: Study

Commonly prescribed drugs used to lower blood pressure can actually have the opposite effect-raising blood pressure in a statistically significant percentage of patients. A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests that doctors could avoid this problem-and select drugs most suitable for their patients-by measuring blood levels of the enzyme renin through a blood test that is becoming more widely available. The study appears in the online edition of the American Journal of Hypertension.

20 Aug 2010

MUH performs first intracranial radiosurgery with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion system

Macquarie University Hospital (MUH) performed Australia's first Gamma Knife surgery with its new Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion system, making it the country's first and only center capable of providing dedicated intracranial radiosurgery.

20 Aug 2010

First pathological evidence of link between repeated head injuries and chronic traumatic Encephalomyopathy

Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine have provided the first pathological evidence of a link between repeated head injuries—such as those experienced by athletes in contact sports such as boxing, football, and hockey—and a disease (chronic traumatic Encephalomyopathy) that resembles amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

20 Aug 2010

USPTO rules out Oculir's claim on noninvasive glucose measuring device patent

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has held that all claims in Oculir's Patent No. 6,958,039 to be invalid as not patentable based on prior art from a patent disclosure by Yale researcher, Dr. Marc Abreu.

20 Aug 2010

Study on multisensory processing in autistic children

A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has provided concrete evidence that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) process sensory information such as sound, touch and vision differently than typically developing children.

20 Aug 2010

Donor kidneys from deceased as good as those from brain-dead: Study

According to a new study from the UK, transplanted kidneys from patients whose hearts have stopped perform just as well as those from patients who are brain-dead but still alive. The former have been earlier considered to be weaker since the heart had stopped pumping blood into them before transplant. The study was published online by the The Lancet.

20 Aug 2010

Scientists suggest combination vaccine prevents pertussis

If you think you shouldn't be worried about your child's—or your—lingering, nagging cough, think again. Pertussis has reemerged on the scene. In what some public health officials are calling the worst outbreak in 50 years, pertussis, better known by its unique sound—whooping cough, has been found in six states with 1,500 cases reported, six of them fatal.

19 Aug 2010

Second round of abstract submission for International Symposium on MR-guided Focused Ultrasound

Due to overwhelming response from researchers, a second round of abstract submissions for the upcoming 2nd International Symposium on MR-guided Focused Ultrasound will open on Monday, August 23, 2010, nine days earlier than previously announced. The submission deadline will be moved forward to Monday, September 6, 2010.

19 Aug 2010

USPTO to issue reexamination certificate for Neuralstem's patent for neural stem cell technology

Neuralstem, Inc. announced that it received notification that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has upheld the patentability, without amendment, of all claims in U.S. Patent No. 5,753,506 and intends to issue a reexamination certificate in due course. This patent describes methods of culturing and expanding neural stem cells.

19 Aug 2010

Cognition Therapeutics receives grant to develop small-molecule drug candidate for Alzheimer's disease

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) announced today that it has awarded a grant of $228,668 to Cognition Therapeutics (CogRx) to develop small molecule drugs that block the action of the toxic "oligomers" thought responsible for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

19 Aug 2010

New clues to molecular action of Alzheimer's drug memantine

Alzheimer's disease destroys brain cells and their connections (called synapses), causing memory loss and other cognitive problems that disrupt work, hobbies and daily life. Symptoms can be alleviated, in part, by the drug memantine (marketed in the United States as Namenda), which is currently FDA-approved to treat moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease and was, in part, developed by Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Del E. Web Center for Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham).

19 Aug 2010

Maternal stress contribute to an elevated risk for depression in offspring: Research

For more than a century, clinical investigators have focused on early life as a source of adult psychopathology. Although the hypothesized mechanisms have evolved, a central notion remains: early life is a period of unique sensitivity during which experience confers enduring effects.

19 Aug 2010

Prenatal pesticide exposure increases susceptibility to ADHD in children

Exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides before birth can increase susceptibility to attention disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to new research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The new study is part of a growing body of research indicating that exposure to OP pesticides can adversely affect brain development.

19 Aug 2010

Unavoidable breakdowns in brain connections as we age: Study

It's unavoidable: breakdowns in brain connections slow down our physical response times as we age, a new study suggests.

19 Aug 2010

Overweight, smoking and lack of exercise linked to frequent headaches in teens

Teens who are overweight, get little exercise or who smoke may be more likely to have frequent headaches and migraines than teens with none of these factors, according to a study published in the August 18, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Aug 2010

Scientists reveal lab approach method to treat neuroblastoma in children

A study led by scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) reveals a new method of identifying drugs to treat children suffering from fatal cancers for which an effective treatment has not been found. Rather than developing a new drug from scratch, which is a complicated and time-consuming process, they tried a different approach: in the lab, they tested existing drugs on cancer stem cells from young patients with neuroblastoma, one of the common cancers of infants and children.

19 Aug 2010

Rush University Medical Center tests new drug therapy for West Nile fever

Neurological and infectious disease experts at Rush University Medical Center are testing a new drug therapy for the treatment of individuals with West Nile fever or suspected central nervous system infection due to the West Nile virus. Rush is the only site in the Midwest enrolling patients into the $50 million dollar, NIH-funded, Phase II clinical trial called PARADIGM.

18 Aug 2010

Intellect Neurosciences locks database of OXIGON Phase 1b clinical trial for Alzheimer's disease

Intellect Neurosciences, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company with an internal preclinical and clinical-stage pipeline and licenses with major pharmaceutical companies covering products in late-stage clinical trials, announced that it has locked the database of the Company's Phase 1b clinical trial for its lead Alzheimer's candidate, OXIGON™ (OX1).

18 Aug 2010

Brain News and Research

Further Reading

Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to support 2010 National PF Week

FDA Advisory Committee votes in favor of expanding pain indications for Eli Lilly's Cymbalta

Renin test can predict appropriate drugs for BP patients: Study

MUH performs first intracranial radiosurgery with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion system

First pathological evidence of link between repeated head injuries and chronic traumatic Encephalomyopathy

USPTO rules out Oculir's claim on noninvasive glucose measuring device patent

Study on multisensory processing in autistic children

Donor kidneys from deceased as good as those from brain-dead: Study

Scientists suggest combination vaccine prevents pertussis

Second round of abstract submission for International Symposium on MR-guided Focused Ultrasound

USPTO to issue reexamination certificate for Neuralstem's patent for neural stem cell technology

Cognition Therapeutics receives grant to develop small-molecule drug candidate for Alzheimer's disease

New clues to molecular action of Alzheimer's drug memantine

Maternal stress contribute to an elevated risk for depression in offspring: Research

Prenatal pesticide exposure increases susceptibility to ADHD in children

Unavoidable breakdowns in brain connections as we age: Study

Overweight, smoking and lack of exercise linked to frequent headaches in teens

Scientists reveal lab approach method to treat neuroblastoma in children

Rush University Medical Center tests new drug therapy for West Nile fever

Intellect Neurosciences locks database of OXIGON Phase 1b clinical trial for Alzheimer's disease

Industry Focus eBook - Neurology/Neuroscience - 2nd 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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