Neurons News and Research

RSS

Scientists create tiny, biodegradable scaffold to transplant stem cells and deliver drugs

Rutgers scientists have created a tiny, biodegradable scaffold to transplant stem cells and deliver drugs, which may help treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, aging brain degeneration, spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries.

5 Nov 2018

O'Donnell Brain Institute helps U.S. effort to study neural circuits behind learning, memory

UT Southwestern's O'Donnell Brain Institute will help in a national effort to understand the neural circuits behind learning, memory, and behavior.

3 Nov 2018

NIH increases funding through the BRAIN Initiative

The National Institutes of Health announces funding of more than 200 new awards, totaling over $220 million, through the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, an exciting trans-agency effort to arm researchers with revolutionary tools to fundamentally understand the neural circuits that underlie the healthy and diseased brain.

2 Nov 2018

Lateral inhibition avoids overlap between similar memories

When you park in the office car park, you usually have no problem finding your car again at the end of the day. The next day, you might park a few spots further away. However, in the evening, you find your car, even though the memories of both days are very similar.

2 Nov 2018

New study upends conventional theories about fluid nature of cell membranes

If you want to understand how the cell membrane works, Adam Cohen says, look no further than your kitchen. Cohen, a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Physics, is the lead author of a new study that upends the conventional theories about the fluid nature of cell membranes and how they react to tension.

2 Nov 2018

World's largest neuromorphic supercomputer being switched on for the first time

The world's largest neuromorphic supercomputer designed and built to work in the same way a human brain does has been fitted with its landmark one-millionth processor core and is being switched on for the first time.

2 Nov 2018

New form of therapy may stop or reverse progressive vision loss

A new form of therapy may halt or even reverse a form of progressive vision loss that, until now, has inevitably led to blindness.

1 Nov 2018

Retinal sheet transplants restore vision in blind rats

Sheets of fetal cells integrate into the retina and generate nearly normal visual activity in the brains of blind rats, reports new research published in JNeurosci.

From Society for Neuroscience 1 Nov 2018

Repair defect in neurons hints at possible therapy for preventing ALS

Houston Methodist researchers have discovered a repair defect in nerve cells that send messages to the brain, opening the door to a possible therapy for preventing or slowing down ALS.

1 Nov 2018

Toxic protein assemblies found to play beneficial role in muscle generation

Toxic protein assemblies, or "amyloids," long considered to be key drivers in many neuromuscular diseases, also play a beneficial role in the development of healthy muscle tissue, University of Colorado Boulder researchers have found.

1 Nov 2018

Study outlines how gut bacteria may influence behavior, including movement

A new study puts a fresh spin on what it means to "go with your gut." The findings, published in Nature, suggest that gut bacteria may control movement in fruit flies and identify the neurons involved in this response.

1 Nov 2018

Texas A&M study identifies new brain region involved in inhibiting fear

A study conducted at Texas A&M University has identified a new area in the brain involved in inhibiting fear, a discovery that holds potential for clinical interventions in patients with psychiatric diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

31 Oct 2018

Brain may have more influence on lifespan and sexual maturity of humans than their body

New Vanderbilt research finds how long humans and other live--and when they reach sexual maturity-- may have more to do with their brain than their body. More specifically, it is not animals with larger bodies or slower metabolic rates that live longer; it is animals with more neurons in the cerebral cortex, whatever the size of the body.

31 Oct 2018

FDA approves ultra-high-field 7T Terra MRI scanner for clinical use

The ultra-high-field 7T Terra magnetic resonance imaging scanner at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute of the Keck School of Medicine of USC has received FDA approval for clinical use, opening up new avenues of care for patients with Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and other diseases that affect the brain.

31 Oct 2018

Researchers find existence of specific networks in the brain much earlier than previously thought

A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School, the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, have used the brain's spontaneously generated patterns of activity to glean novel insights into network structure and development.

30 Oct 2018

Study pinpoints two proteins that sense blood pressure and help control baroreceptor reflex

The baroreceptor reflex is a fascinating medical phenomenon. The reflex is controlled by specialized neurons that react in just a fraction of a second to keep blood pressure fairly consistent.

30 Oct 2018

Dopamine neurons play role in reinforcing addictive effects of heroin

Scientists have made a major advance in untangling the brain circuits that lead to the powerful addictive effects of heroin, a study in the open-access journal eLife reports.

30 Oct 2018

Groundbreaking Khíron chip enables fast, accurate intra-tissue measurement

A new gold standard for electrical measurement in the emerging in vitro world of three dimensional models. That's what Swiss medtech 3Brain has established by partnering with CSEM.

30 Oct 2018

Ten Allen Distinguished Investigators for 2018 announced by Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group

Nanoparticles that could reprogram a cancer patient's immune system inside their own body. Understanding a mysterious type of brain cell in the hopes of shedding new light on Alzheimer's disease. Reimagining nuclei, the DNA-storage compartments of our cells, as miniature lava lamps.

30 Oct 2018

Neuroene Therapeutics receives $1.5 million NIH grant to develop anti-seizure compound for epilepsy

Neuroene Therapeutics, a start-up company founded by mitochondrial biologist Sherine S. L. Chan, Ph.D. and medicinal chemist C. James Chou, Ph.D. of the Medical University of South Carolina, has received a $1.5 million NIH Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant to optimize vitamin K analogues that could improve seizure control in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

29 Oct 2018