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.

US Treasury Department clears YM BioSciences' nimotuzumab clinical program extension

YM BioSciences Inc. a life sciences product development company that identifies and advances a diverse portfolio of promising cancer-related products at various stages of development, today reported operational and financial results for its fiscal year end, ended June 30, 2009.

25 Sep 2009

Link between flicking colours and epileptic fits discovered

Researchers have discovered that epileptic brains are more ordered than non-epileptic ones and also that certain flicking colours seem more likely to cause fits.

25 Sep 2009

Senior chemist receives nation's highest award for achievement in science

Joanna Fowler, a senior chemist and Director of the Radiotracer Chemistry, Instrumentation and Biological Imaging Program at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, will be awarded the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony on October 7. She is one of nine researchers named by President Barack Obama to receive the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in science.

25 Sep 2009

Researchers to use Intravenous Immune Globulin for slowing AD progression

Researchers from the Memory and Cognition Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center will begin testing an intriguing new approach to slowing down the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) using Intravenous Immune Globulin (IGIV), also known as gammaglobulin.

25 Sep 2009

Researchers study about abnormal gene functioning in mitochondria

Researchers are delving into abnormal gene function in mitochondria, structures within cells that power our lives. Mitochondria are the place where energy is generated from the most basic molecules of food. Because this function is essential to life, defects in mitochondria may affect a wide range of organ systems in humans and animals.

25 Sep 2009

Neuroscience professor receives Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award

Leon Reijmers, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, is one of 55 recipients of the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award. Reijmers is investigating the way memories are stored in the brain, specifically focusing on the proteins involved in long-term memory storage.

25 Sep 2009

$10 million grant to Weill Cornell Institute from NIMH to study geriatric depression

The Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division announced today it has received the largest grant in its 20-year history. One of a handful awarded nationally, the new $10 million, five-year "Center Grant" from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will enable NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell investigators to advance their pioneering work in understanding the biological, medical, cognitive and psychosocial problems of depressed seniors.

25 Sep 2009

Non-accredited education programs for people with chronic disabilities

iMedicor (VMCI.OB) formerly Vemics, Inc. and EP Global Communications (EPGL.OB) have announced the renewal of their strategic alliance agreement to produce Continuing Medical Education (CME) and non-accredited education programs for people with special needs and life long chronic disabilities. iMedicor/Vemics and EP Global Communications have worked together for a number of years and this relationship has generated substantial revenue for both companies and has provided a valuable service to the community they serve.

25 Sep 2009

Chronic sleep deprivation linked to early incidence of Alzheimer's brain plaques

Chronic sleep deprivation in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease makes Alzheimer's brain plaques appear earlier and more often, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report online this week in Science Express.

25 Sep 2009

Study on mitochondria function

For such crucial biological actors, much remains unknown about exactly how mitochondria function. A new study, published Aug. 12 in the online journal PLoS One, sheds light on mitochondrial biology. Using genetic engineering, researchers interrupted the activity of individual genes directly involved in the production of energy within mitochondria. "If we knock down the function of specific system components, what happens?" said study leader Marni J. Falk, M.D., who directs the Mitochondrial-Genetics Disease Clinic at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Our ultimate goal is to translate the knowledge into targeted therapies, that is, effective ways to intervene. But first we need to understand the underlying disease mechanisms."

25 Sep 2009

H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of medical ethics issues: JCB

The anticipated onset of a second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of thorny medical ethics issues best considered well in advance, according to the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, which today released nine papers for public discussion.

25 Sep 2009

Oxygen Biotherapeutics submits a patent application for its heart attack treatment device

Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc. today announced that the company has submitted a patent application for a new invention that uses Oxycyte(R) perfluorocarbon to deliver oxygen as a first aid treatment for victims of heart attacks and strokes. Oxycyte is the Company's perfluorocarbon (PFC) therapeutic oxygen carrier.

24 Sep 2009

Amorfix Life Sciences to present Amorfix's EP-vCJD blood screening test for vCJD at WFH Global Forum

Amorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on treatments and diagnostics for brain wasting diseases, announced today that its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. George Adams, will present Amorfix's EP-vCJD(TM) blood screening test for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("vCJD") at the Sixth World Federation of Hemophilia ("WFH") Global Forum on the Safety and Supply of Treatment Products for Bleeding Disorders in Montreal, Quebec at 11:00 am ET on Friday, September 25, 2009.

24 Sep 2009

Jean-Pol Tassin honored with the ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award

The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is pleased to announce Jean-Pol Tassin as the recipient of the 2009 ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award in Basic Science Research in recognition of his pioneering and innovative research into the neurochemical basis of substance addiction.

24 Sep 2009

How the human brain processes incoming sensory signals amidst background noise

The brain never sits idle. Whether we are awake or asleep, watch TV or close our eyes, waves of spontaneous nerve signals wash through our brains. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies studying visual attention have discovered a novel mechanism that explains how incoming sensory signals make themselves heard amidst the constant background rumblings so they can be reliably processed and passed on.

24 Sep 2009

ADAGIO clinical trial results demonstrating AZILECT's efficacy published

Results from the ADAGIO trial, published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that Parkinson’s disease patients receiving AZILECT (rasagiline) 1mg/day at the start of the study (early-start group) experienced superior benefit over 18 months compared with those who started the exact same treatment nine months later (delayed-start group).

24 Sep 2009

Hormone leptin can regulate bone mass and suppress appetite

Contrary to the prevailing view, the hormone leptin, which is critical for normal food intake and metabolism, appears to regulate bone mass and suppress appetite by acting mainly through serotonin pathways in the brain, according to a recent study published in Cell by Yale School of Medicine researchers and colleagues at Columbia University. This new finding contradicts the view that leptin acts primarily in the hypothalamus.

24 Sep 2009

DISC1 linked to proper development and migration of neurons in the brain

Scientists now have a better understanding of a perplexing gene that is associated with susceptibility for a wide spectrum of severely debilitating mental illnesses. Two independent research studies published by Cell Press in the September 24th issue of the journal Neuron provide fascinating insight into the molecular mechanisms that link disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) with the proper development and migration of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain area involved in learning and memory and associated with the pathology of schizophrenia.

24 Sep 2009

Electrically stimulating nerve cells can restore some vision

Results: MIT engineers have designed a retinal implant for people who have lost their vision from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, two of the leading causes of blindness. The retinal prosthesis would help restore some vision by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.

24 Sep 2009

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles catalyze brain tumor death

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago Medical Center's Brain Tumor Center have developed a way to target brain cancer cells using inorganic titanium dioxide nanoparticles bonded to antibodies.

23 Sep 2009