Mental Retardation News and Research

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Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to honor 8 scientists for achievements in psychiatric research

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation will honor eight scientists with its 2014 Outstanding Achievement Prizes for work delving into psychiatric disorders that affect one in four people. The awards, which celebrate the transformative power of neuroscience and psychiatric research to improve the lives of people with mental illness, will be presented at the Foundation's National Awards Dinner at the Pierre Hotel.

30 Sep 2014

Newborn screening can prevent lifelong disability

When your baby was born you likely heard a loud cry and examined your baby to make sure he/she had a full set of adorable fingers and toes. But just imagine a few days after you arrive home, your phone rings: your baby has screened positive for a genetic disorder.

24 Sep 2014

Researchers reveal how alteration of single nucleotide could initiate fragile X syndrome

Researchers reveal how the alteration of a single nucleotide—the basic building block of DNA—could initiate fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability. The study appears in The Journal of Cell Biology.

2 Sep 2014

Zebrafish and virus help scientists map the living brain

A virus and a zebrafish are helping scientists map the living brain. "You can kinda draw a diagram and see how cells within it are connected in a functioning brain," said Dr. Albert Pan, neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.

26 Aug 2014

Study shows bryostatin plays key role in slowing or reversing Alzheimer's disease

Neurotrope, Inc. (OTCQB: NTRP) today announced that results from a new study, entitled, "PKCe Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease Brains and Skin Fibroblasts," published in the recent edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and co-authored by Tapan K. Khan, Ph.D.; Abhik Sen, Ph.D.; Jarin Hongpaisan, Ph.D.; Chol S. Lim, Ph.D.; Thomas J. Nelson, Ph.D., and; Dr. Daniel L. Alkon, each of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI), provide further indication of the role that protein kinase C epsilon (PKCe) may play in the potential treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

19 Aug 2014

Lead levels in foods prepared in aluminum pots from Cameroon exceed US guidelines for lead intake

Lead levels in foods prepared in aluminum pots from Cameroon exceed U.S. guidelines for lead consumption according to a new study published this month.

13 Aug 2014

Study shows inactivation of p53 protein promotes cancer progression

Researchers at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the University of Barcelona have discovered the interaction between HERC2 proteins with another protein called p53 that is inactivated in more than half of human tumors.

22 Jul 2014

Higher risk of psychiatric disorders found in children born to women with fertility problems

Children born to women with fertility problems have a higher risk of psychiatric disorders than naturally conceived children. The increase in risk was described as "modest" by researchers from Denmark, but was found to persist throughout childhood and into young adulthood.

30 Jun 2014

Combination of effective drugs for Parkinson's disease controls symptoms of Rett syndrome in mice

IDIBELL researchers, led by the director of the Program for Epigenetics and Cancer Biology, ICREA researcher and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona, Manel Esteller, have shown that a combination of effective drugs for Parkinson's disease in mice that are used as a model of human Rett syndrome reduces some of the symptoms associated with this disease.

17 Jun 2014

Two young neuroscientists win CAN Young Investigator Awards for 2014

The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is proud to announce that Dr. Stephanie Borgland, from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at University of Calgary, and Dr. Brian Chen, from the Centre for Research in Neuroscience at McGill University, are both winners of CAN Young Investigator Awards for 2014.

8 May 2014

Experimental anticancer compound appears to reverse behaviors associated with schizophrenia

Johns Hopkins researchers say that an experimental anticancer compound appears to have reversed behaviors associated with schizophrenia and restored some lost brain cell function in adolescent mice with a rodent version of the devastating mental illness.

1 Apr 2014

Scientists discover why cerebellar granule cell neurons in A-T patients fail to repair DNA damage

A team of scientists, led by Stuart Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Neuroscience and Aging Research Center at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, recently discovered why cerebellar granule cell neurons in patients suffering from ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) were unable to repair DNA damage and thus died.

26 Mar 2014

UC Davis MIND Institute named Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center

The UC Davis MIND Institute has been named an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, through a prestigious grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health - a distinction held by only a handful of neurodevelopmental centers nationwide committed to the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and amelioration of developmental disorders such as autism, fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome.

14 Mar 2014

Patient with autistic behavior experiences improvements in mental health after liver transplant

A patient with a rare metabolic disease that causes liver failure and autistic behavior experienced significant improvements in both her physical and mental health after receiving a liver transplant, according to a new case report published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

12 Mar 2014

Genetic basis of hereditary disease causes severe brain atrophy in Jews of Moroccan ancestry

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have unraveled the genetic basis of a hereditary disease that causes severe brain atrophy, mental retardation and epilepsy in Jews of Moroccan ancestry, according to a study published this week online in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

11 Mar 2014

Researchers discover how brain cells change during learning and memories

A new University of British Columbia study identifies an important molecular change that occurs in the brain when we learn and remember.

25 Feb 2014

Rare and de novo mutations flesh out schizophrenia picture

Two studies in Nature show that rare disruptive and de novo mutations may contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

6 Feb 2014

Scientists believe that new links between brain cells help encode new memories and skills

In adults, some brain regions retain a "childlike" ability to establish new connections, potentially contributing to our ability to learn new skills and form new memories as we age, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

8 Jan 2014

Polyunsaturated fatty acids play key role in embryonic development

One classical question in developmental biology is how different tissue types arise in the correct position of the developing embryo. While one signaling pathway that controls this process has been well described, unexpected findings from a team led by Carnegie's Steven Farber reveal the importance of polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism in this process. It is published online December 12 in Developmental Cell.

13 Dec 2013

Prenatal alcohol exposure impacts brain development and change behavior

Prenatal exposure to alcohol severely disrupts major features of brain development that potentially lead to increased anxiety and poor motor function, conditions typical in humans with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, according to neuroscientists at the University of California, Riverside.

3 Dec 2013