Brain News and Research

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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.

Primitive human stem cells resistant to human cytomegalovirus

A new study published online in PLOS ONE reveals that primitive human stem cells are resistant to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), one of the leading prenatal causes of congenital intellectual disability, deafness and deformities worldwide.

30 Nov 2012

Stroke effects: an interview with Dr Ingvars Birznieks

Stroke often affects both our ability of our hands to feel and our ability to contract muscles. Sensory and motor functions are tightly linked.

30 Nov 2012

GM1 ganglioside effectively treats patients with Parkinson's disease

Treating Parkinson's disease patients with the experimental drug GM1 ganglioside improved symptoms and slowed their progression during a two and a half-year trial, Thomas Jefferson University researchers report in a new study published online November 28 in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

30 Nov 2012

Four TSRI scientists named American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows

Four scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They are chemist Phil Baran, neuroscientist Hollis Cline, immunologist J. Lindsay Whitton, and chemist Jin-Quan Yu. Election as a AAAS fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers

30 Nov 2012

Needless fears linked to severity of autism symptoms in children

Most people know when to be afraid and when it's ok to calm down. But new research on autism shows that children with the diagnosis struggle to let go of old, outdated fears. Even more significantly, the Brigham Young University study found that this rigid fearfulness is linked to the severity of classic symptoms of autism, such as repeated movements and resistance to change.

30 Nov 2012

Researchers study effects of food logos on obese and healthy weight children

Rates of childhood obesity have tripled in the past 30 years, and food marketing has been implicated as one factor contributing to this trend. Every year, companies spend more than $10 billion in the US marketing their food and beverages to children; 98% of the food products advertised to children on television are high in fat, sugar, or sodium. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers used neuroimaging to study the effects of food logos on obese and healthy weight children.

30 Nov 2012

Engineers develop simple and inexpensive way to create 3-D brain tissues in lab dishes

Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School (HMS) engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.

30 Nov 2012

Neuro-inflammation plays a crucial role in initiating prion disease

In a recent publication, researchers of the Computational Biology group at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine showed that neuro-inflammation plays a crucial role in initiating prion disease.

30 Nov 2012

Cleveland Clinic researcher names American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow

Cleveland Clinic researcher Jun Qin, Ph.D., has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). As part of the Molecular Cardiology Department in the Lerner Research Institute, Qin was elected as an AAAS Fellow for exemplary contributions to the field of cell signaling.

30 Nov 2012

German Research Foundation to establish new CRC at Mainz University Medical Center

On January 1, 2013, the German Research Foundation (DFG) will establish a new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU).

30 Nov 2012

UBE3B gene linked to brain development disorder in children

Researchers have defined the gene responsible for a rare developmental disorder in children. The team showed that rare variation in a gene involved in brain development causes the disorder. This is the first time that this gene, UBE3B, has been linked to a disease.

30 Nov 2012

Novel SIRT2 inhibitor protects against neuronal damage in animal models of Huntington's

Treatment with a novel agent that inhibits the activity of SIRT2, an enzyme that regulates many important cellular functions, reduced neurological damage, slowed the loss of motor function and extended survival in two animal models of Huntington's disease.

30 Nov 2012

Scientists define key underlying process implicated in multiple sclerosis

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have defined for the first time a key underlying process implicated in multiple sclerosis (MS)-a disease that causes progressive and irreversible damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. This discovery offers new hope for the millions who suffer from this debilitating disease for which there is no cure.

30 Nov 2012

Alberta Children's Hospital performs first liver cell transplant in Calgary, Canada

A three-month-old Winnipeg girl has become the first patient in Canada to receive an experimental and potentially life-saving form of therapy to improve the function of her liver.

29 Nov 2012

LP-211 compound shows promise against Fragile X syndrome

A potential new therapeutic strategy for treating Fragile X syndrome is detailed in a new report appearing in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, from researchers led by Dr. Lucia Ciranna at University of Catania in Italy.

29 Nov 2012

ArmaGen closes $17M Series A financing

ArmaGen Technologies, Inc. today announced the closing of a $17 million Series A financing to support the development of brain-penetrating recombinant protein therapeutics.

29 Nov 2012

Yale and Mainz University Medical Center to extend collaboration

The University Medical Center at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany and the renowned School of Medicine at Yale University, USA have agreed upon a future collaboration. This strategic partnership promises to provide an innovative stimulus for the Research Unit Translational Neurosciences at the Mainz University Medical Center. The resulting regular exchange will benefit both basic research and the training of young researchers.

29 Nov 2012

Children of low socioeconomic status work harder to filter out irrelevant environmental information

Children of low socioeconomic status work harder to filter out irrelevant environmental information than those from a high-income background because of learned differences in what they pay attention to, according to new research published in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

29 Nov 2012

Air pollution exposure in early life linked to autism

Exposure to air pollution in early life or during pregnancy puts children at risk for autism, show study findings.

29 Nov 2012

Imaging window into future for brain injury patients

A model based on quantitative diffusion tensor imaging findings predicts outcomes after severe traumatic brain injury better than current methods, shows a multicenter study.

29 Nov 2012