Brain News and Research

RSS

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.

Can brain-injured, partially-blind stroke patients regain some of their lost vision?

Is it possible to offer hope for stroke patients who've lose part of their vision?

5 Sep 2007

3D fruit fly images to benefit brain research

The fragile head and brain of a fly are not easy things to examine but MRC scientists have figured out how to make it a little simpler. And they hope their research will shed light on human disease.

5 Sep 2007

Dramatic rise of bipolar disorder in young Americans

According to a new study there has been a dramatic rise in the number of young Americans diagnosed with bipolar disorder in recent years.

4 Sep 2007

Fruit flies have a taste for carbonated water

That fruit fly hovering over your kitchen counter may be attracted to more than the bananas that are going brown; it may also want a sip of your carbonated water.

4 Sep 2007

Sense of orientation coded in the brain of rats

To orient ourselves, we mainly need two pieces of information: where am I and in which direction am I heading? Experiments in the rat have shown that these types of information are directly accessible and independently coded in the brain.

3 Sep 2007

Insights into the physiological basis of obesity

The past decade has witnessed an explosion of information regarding the role of the central nervous system (CNS) in the development of obesity and the influence of peripheral, hormonal signals that regulate CNS function to regulate food intake and metabolism.

3 Sep 2007

Nanoparticle drug delivery shows promise for the future of brain tumour therapy

A nanoparticle drug delivery system designed for brain tumour therapy has shown promising tumour cell selectivity in a novel cell culture model devised by scientists at The University of Nottingham. The project, conducted jointly by the Schools of Pharmacy, Biomedical Sciences and Human Development, will be featured in the September issue of the Experimental Biology and Medicine.

3 Sep 2007

New and very different schizophrenia drug shows promise

Scientists at Eli Lilly say the first human trial of a new schizophrenia drug shows promise for sufferers of the debilitating mental illness.

3 Sep 2007

getABI study finds that even mild atherosclerosis in the legs increases mortality substantially

Patients with atherosclerosis in the leg arteries face a substantially increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk, according to a large study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Vienna.

3 Sep 2007

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) and atrial septal defect (ASD) closure

A PFO and an ASD are congenital structural heart diseases characterized by a communication between heart chambers at the level of the wall (septum) separating them. These chambers are the left and right atrium as shown on the picture below. The right atrium receives (dark) oxygen-depleted blood from the great veins, while the left atrium receives (red) oxygen-rich blood from the lungs.

3 Sep 2007

A drug-sensitive 'traffic cop' tells potassium channels to get lost

Our brains are buzzing with electrical activity created by sodium and potassium ions moving in and out of neurons through specialized pores. To prevent the constant chatter from descending into chaos the activity of these ion channels has to be tightly regulated.

3 Sep 2007

Blood-flow detector software shows promise in preventing brain damage

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Cambridge University in England have designed an automated means of continuously tracking potentially dangerous changes in blood flow to the brain in real time, a system that shows promise for preventing brain damage and death in children with head injuries.

3 Sep 2007

Small animal imaging facility is big boon to research

When powerful magnets line up the body's protons before radiofrequency waves can grab their attention away, it's called spin physics.

30 Aug 2007

Microfluidic chambers advance the science of growing neurons

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a method for culturing mammalian neurons in chambers not much larger than the neurons themselves.

30 Aug 2007

FDA approves Somatuline Depot to treat acromegaly

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Somatuline Depot (lanreotide acetate injection) for the treatment of acromegaly, a rare and potentially life threatening disease in adults caused by abnormal secretion of growth hormone (GH), commonly from a benign tumor located in the pituitary gland located in the brain.

30 Aug 2007

New anti-cancer drug made from corn lillies kills brain tumor stem cells

A drug that shuts down a critical cell-signaling pathway in the most common and aggressive type of adult brain cancer successfully kills cancer stem cells thought to fuel tumor growth and help cancers evade drug and radiation therapy, a Johns Hopkins study shows.

30 Aug 2007

Children with autism don't adapt as readily to unfamiliar faces

The findings, from a study conducted by researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Florence, and Western Australia, might help to explain some of the core social deficits associated with the disorder.

30 Aug 2007

Brain's impaired ability to sense glucose might play role in type 2 diabetes

New findings from studies in mice suggest that defects in the brain's ability to respond to glucose play a role in the development of non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes, and that a high-fat diet may contribute to impairing brain cells' ability to regulate glucose throughout the body.

30 Aug 2007

Early surgical removal of the ovaries increases a woman's risk of neurological disorders

New research suggests that premenopausal women who have their ovaries removed have an increased risk of developing neurological disorders such as dementia and Parkinsonism.

30 Aug 2007