Synapse News and Research

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Graphene flakes can modulate synapses

The laboratory of SISSA's Laura Ballerini in collaboration with the University of Trieste, the University of Manchester and the University of Castilla -la Mancha, has discovered a new approach to modulating synapses.

11 May 2016

Researchers identify 43 specific genes associated with both autism and cancer

Autism and cancer share more than 40 risk genes, suggesting that common mechanisms underlying the functions of some of these genes could conceivably be leveraged to develop therapies not just for cancer but for autism as well, an extensive assessment by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

4 May 2016

Role of microRNAs in range of physiological activities

A group including scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health to study the role of microRNAs in a range of physiological activities, including memory, sleep, synapse function and movement.

28 Apr 2016

Scientists unravel mystery of disrupted communication between brain cells in Parkinson's patients

A possible cause has been found for the disrupted communication between brain cells exhibited by Parkinson's patients. Bettina Schwab, a researcher at the University of Twente in The Netherlands, discovered that this group of patients have increased concentrations of a certain type of protein. Ms Schwab defended her doctoral dissertation on Friday 22 April.

27 Apr 2016

Brain chemical dopamine plays key role in representing or encoding movement

Princeton University researchers have found that dopamine - a brain chemical involved in learning, motivation and many other functions - also has a direct role in representing or encoding movement. The finding could help researchers better understand dopamine's role in movement-related disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

26 Apr 2016

Actin filaments may be key to molecular machinery that forms, stores long-term memories

Thank the little "muscles" in your neurons for allowing you to remember where you live, what your friends and family look like and a lot more.

19 Apr 2016

Scientists identify unique memory suppressor gene that could provide clues for new Alzheimer’s disease treatments

While research has identified hundreds of genes required for normal memory formation, genes that suppress memory are of special interest because they offer insights into how the brain prioritizes and manages all of the information, including memories, that it takes in every day.

18 Apr 2016

Study explores two new antibodies believed to cause myasthenia gravis

A study of patients from across the nation with myasthenia gravis is helping determine the incidence of two new antibodies believed to cause the disease, and whether these patients need different treatment strategies.

6 Apr 2016

New type of nerve cells appears to control feeding behaviors in mice

While researching the brain's learning and memory system, scientists at Johns Hopkins say they stumbled upon a new type of nerve cell that seems to control feeding behaviors in mice. The finding, they report, adds significant detail to the way brains tell animals when to stop eating and, if confirmed in humans, could lead to new tools for fighting obesity. Details of the study will be published by the journal Science on March 18.

20 Mar 2016

Immune cells play vital role in rewiring connections between nerve cells

A new study out today in the journal Nature Communications shows that cells normally associated with protecting the brain from infection and injury also play an important role in rewiring the connections between nerve cells.

8 Mar 2016

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