SCIENCE NEWS
Neuralstem Receives Approval to Commence First Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Stem Cell Trial at Emory ALS Center Neuralstem, Inc. announced that its Phase I trial to treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) with its spinal cord stem cells has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. [Neuralstem, Inc., Rockville]
New Insight in Nerve Cell Communication Researchers have, with nanotechnology techniques, studied the way proteins recognize the small membrane vesicles that transmit signaling molecules from one nerve cell to another. [University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen]
Researcher Links Diabetic Complication, Nerve Damage in Bone Marrow A research team led by a Michigan State University professor has discovered a link between diabetes and bone marrow nerve damage that may help treat one of the disease’s most common and potentially blindness-causing complications. [Michigan State University, East Lansing]
Researchers Identify Protein Needed to Develop Auditory Neurons Sox2, a protein that regulates stem cell formation, was found to be involved in spiral ganglion neuron development. [University of California, San Diego]
Study Sheds Light on Role of Stem Cells in Children’s Brain Tumour New research shows that medulloblastomas can grow from a type of brain stem cell and that these cancers are a distinct form of the disease which may require a completely different approach to treatment. [Queen Mary, University of London, London]
Scientists Discover a Controller of Brain Circuitry By combining a research technique that dates back 136 years with modern molecular genetics, a neuroscientist has been able to see how a mammal’s brain shrewdly revisits and reuses the same molecular cues to control the complex design of its circuits. [Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore]
Sleeping Beauty Hooks Up with Herpes to Fight Brain Disease Neuroscientists have brought together the herpes virus and a molecule known as Sleeping Beauty to improve gene therapy. The work has allowed scientists to reach a long-sought goal: Shuttling into brain cells a relatively large gene that can remain on for an extended period of time. [University of Rochester Medical Centre, Rochester]
Silencing the Brain with Light Neuroengineers find a new way to quickly and reversibly shut off neurons with multiple colors of light, which could lead to new treatments for epilepsy and chronic pain. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston]
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University Store Information in Isolated Brain Tissue Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers are the first to create stimulus-specific sustained activity patterns in brain circuits maintained in vitro. [Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland]
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