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Researchers find key brain receptor linked to depression, drug addiction and Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have found that a key receptor in the brain, once thought to only strengthen synapses, can also weaken them, offering new insights into the mechanisms driving depression, drug addiction and even Alzheimer's disease.

3 Mar 2016

FUJIFILM Medical Systems receives FDA clearance for Synapse 5

FUJIFILM Medical Systems U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of diagnostic imaging products and medical informatics solutions, announced it has received FDA 510 (k) clearance for the sale and distribution of its most recent innovation in PACS technology, Synapse 5.

18 Feb 2016

Penn investigators devise new method to map 'transcriptome'

A new way of mapping the "transcriptome" -- the collection of RNA read-outs that are expressed by a cell's active genes -- has been devised by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

10 Feb 2016

Understanding crucial role of 'healthy' brain in preventing memory failures linked to Alzheimer's disease

The mechanisms underlying the stability and plasticity of neural circuits in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for spatial memory and the memory of everyday facts and events, has been a major focus of study in the field of neuroscience. Understanding precisely how a "healthy" brain stores and processes information is crucial to preventing and reversing the memory failures associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of late-life dementia.

2 Feb 2016

Research offers novel insights into root causes of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mysterious and devastating disorder that afflicts one percent of the adult population worldwide. Its symptoms — hallucinations, emotional withdrawal, and cognitive impairment — are chronic and typically emerge just as individuals are entering adulthood. Today's medications treat just one of these symptoms (psychosis); treatments for the underlying disease and its many other symptoms have been hard to develop, because no one really understands what causes the disorder.

31 Jan 2016

Intake of Bimuno in early life benefits brain development

Clasado Biosciences Limited, the producers and suppliers of Bimuno® (B-GOS), a unique patented trans-galactooligosaccharide complex, and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, today announce the results of their latest pre-clinical study, demonstrating for the first time a major role of B-GOS in modulating brain development at the molecular level in early life stages.

11 Jan 2016

Scientists discover molecular mechanism responsible for degeneration of Purkinje cells in SCA1

Scientists from Bern have discovered a mechanism which is responsible for the degeneration of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum in a neurodegenerative disease called Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. The results of their study open up new avenues for the future treatment of cerebellum associated degenerative disorders.

7 Jan 2016

CMU researchers develop new method to survey learning-related changes in synapse properties

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new approach to broadly survey learning-related changes in synapse properties. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience and featured on the journal's cover, the researchers used machine-learning algorithms to analyze thousands of images from the cerebral cortex. This allowed them to identify synapses from an entire cortical region, revealing unanticipated information about how synaptic properties change during development and learning.

29 Dec 2015

Researchers identify biochemical factors that may predict Alzheimer's disease

Investigators have wondered why the brains of some cognitively-intact elderly individuals have abundant pathology on autopsy or significant amyloid deposition on neuroimaging that are characteristic of Alzheimer disease (AD).

22 Dec 2015

Researchers trace origins of early abnormal brain overgrowth in ASD

Further underscoring the prenatal origins of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time how abnormal gene activity in cell cycle networks that are known to control brain cell production may underlie abnormal early brain growth in the disorder.

14 Dec 2015

Tetra begins human Phase 1 safety trials of BPN14770

Tetra Discovery Partners today announced that the company has initiated human Phase 1 safety trials of its lead compound BPN14770, which Tetra is developing as a potential treatment to both improve memory and slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

9 Dec 2015

Discovery opens up new avenue for research on potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease

A team of researchers led by UNSW Australia scientists has discovered how connections between brain cells are destroyed in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease - work that opens up a new avenue for research on possible treatments for the degenerative brain condition.

27 Nov 2015

High-fat diet appears to prompt immune cells to start consuming connections between neurons

When a high-fat diet causes us to become obese, it also appears to prompt normally bustling immune cells in our brain to become sedentary and start consuming the connections between our neurons, scientists say.

24 Nov 2015

Researchers find mechanism to repair communication between neurons

A team of researchers led by professor Patrik Verstreken (VIB/KU Leuven) has exposed the fine details of a mechanism that provides more insight in the communication between neurons. The research has clarified how damaged synapses - the connection points between neurons - are repaired to keep communication between neurons at an optimal level.

19 Nov 2015

Study provides biochemical links between genes linked to autism and the inhibition of nerve cells

A study led by the University of Utah School of Medicine provides new insights into how the subtle changes within cells, caused by disruptions in a gene called Kirrel3, could underlie some types of intellectual disability and autism.

18 Nov 2015

Research brings scientists one step closer to developing human-like artificial intelligence

Making a computer that learns and remembers like a human brain is a daunting challenge. The complex organ has 86 billion neurons and trillions of connections -- or synapses -- that can grow stronger or weaker over time. But now scientists report in ACS' journal Nano Letters the development of a first-of-its-kind synthetic synapse that mimics the plasticity of the real thing, bringing us one step closer to human-like artificial intelligence.

12 Nov 2015

Study shows how synapses organization is controlled

Our ability to learn, move, and sense our world comes from the neurons in our brain. This information moves through our brain between neurons that are linked together by tens of trillions of tiny structures called synapses.

20 Oct 2015

Synapse Biomedical, IFR to commercialize implantable systems that restore muscle function in paralyzed patients

Case Western Reserve University's Institute for Functional Restoration (IFR) and Synapse Biomedical Inc. have entered a partnership to commercialize fully implantable systems that restore muscle function in paralyzed patients.

16 Oct 2015

TSRI study reveals key morphine regulator that may help develop less-addictive pain medications

Once used in the 18th century as currency to reverse the trade imbalance between China and Britain, opiates that contain morphine have been misunderstood almost continually ever since.

23 Sep 2015

Researchers receive $13 million NIH grant to develop new stem cell-based assays for studying autism

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $13 million grant over five years to develop and disseminate new stem cell-based technologies and assays for studying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other mental health diseases to a consortium of researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, working in tandem with leaders in the biotechnology sector.