Neural Cell News Volume 5.17 | May 4 2011

A Role for Central Nervous System PPAR-γ in the Regulation of Energy Balance
Here researchers report a previously unknown role for central nervous system (CNS) PPAR-γ in the regulation of energy balance. [Nature]

Local Sleep in Awake Rats
Here researchers show that in freely behaving rats after a long period in an awake state, cortical neurons can go briefly ‘offline’ as in sleep, accompanied by slow waves in the local electroencephalogram. [Nature]

Mutations in DNMT1 Cause Hereditary Sensory Neuropathy with Dementia and Hearing Loss
Here researchers show that mutations in DNMT1 cause both central and peripheral neurodegeneration in one form of hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy with dementia and hearing loss. [Nat Genet]

Sox2 Cooperates with Chd7 to Regulate Genes that are Mutated in Human Syndromes
Here researchers combined proteomic and genomic approaches to characterize gene regulation by Sox2 in neural stem cells. [Nat Genet]

Reduction of Theta Rhythm Dissociates Grid Cell Spatial Periodicity from Directional Tuning
Researchers analyzed grid cell spatial coding during reduction of network theta rhythm oscillations caused by medial septum (MS) inactivation with muscimol. [Science]

Neuronal Activity Regulates the Regional Vulnerability to Amyloid-β Deposition
Herein, researchers provide evidence that endogenous neuronal activity regulates the regional concentration of interstitial fluid amyloid-β (Aβ), which drives local Aβ aggregation. [Nat Neurosci]

NMDA Receptor Activity Downregulates KCC2 Resulting in Depolarizing GABA(A) Receptor–Mediated Currents
Researchers found that NMDA receptor activity and Ca2+ influx caused the dephosphorylation of Ser940 in dissociated rat neurons, leading to a loss of KCC2 function that lasted longer than 20 min. [Nat Neurosci]

The Neuronal Transporter Gene SLC6A15 Confers Risk to Major Depression
Researchers present data from a genome-wide association study revealing a neuron-specific neutral amino acid transporter (SLC6A15) as a susceptibility gene for major depression. [Neuron]

Rapid Induction and Long-Term Self-Renewal of Primitive Neural Precursors from Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Small Molecule Inhibitors
Here, researchers report synergistic inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase 3, transforming growth factor β, and Notch signaling pathways by small molecules can efficiently convert monolayer cultured human embryonic stem cells into homogenous primitive neuroepithelium within 1 wk under chemically defined condition. [Proc Natl Acad Sci USA]

Direct Reprogramming of Mouse Fibroblasts to Neural Progenitors
Here researchers show that transient induction of the four reprogramming factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc) can efficiently transdifferentiate fibroblasts into functional neural stem/progenitor cells with appropriate signaling inputs. [Proc Natl Acad Sci USA]

Northwest Biotherapeutics’ Ongoing Brain Cancer Trial Recruiting Additional Patients at Four Medical Centers Across US
Northwest Biotherapeutics announced that four medical centers across the country are actively recruiting and screening to enroll additional new patients in the Company’s ongoing 240-patient randomized, double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial of DCVax® immune therapy for Glioblastoma multiforme, the most lethal type of brain cancer. [Therapeutics Daily]

Targacept to Retain Full Rights for TC-5619
Targacept, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel NNR Therapeutics™, announced that AstraZeneca will not exercise its option to license Targacept’s product candidate TC-5619. [Targacept, Inc. Press Release]

RXi Pharmaceuticals and the University of Massachusetts Medical School Announce Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Cooperative Research Grant for RNAi Therapeutics for ALS
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies addressing major unmet medical needs using RNA-targeted and immunotherapy technologies, announced that the company’s proposed research collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) has been selected for Cooperative Research Matching Grant funding by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. [RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation Press Release]

InVivo Therapeutics and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis Form Strategic Research Collaboration to Develop Novel Treatments for Spinal Cord Injuries
InVivo Therapeutics, a company focused on the development of groundbreaking technologies for the treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCI), and The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the world’s most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center, today announced a strategic research collaboration for the development of novel SCI treatments. [InVivo Therapeutics Press Release]

National Institutes of Health (United States)

Food and Drug Administration (United States)

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (United States)

European Medicines Agency (European Union)

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (United Kingdom)

Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia)

NEW Cell Signaling Networks 2011
October 22-27, 2011
Merida, Mexico

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the neural cell community.

Lab Technologist – Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (STEMCELL Technologies)

Tenure Track, Assistant/Associate Professor (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine)

Translational Neuroscience Scholars: Neurodegenerative and Neuromuscular Diseases (University of Minnesota)

Neuroscience Center Director (The University of Texas Health Science Center)

Postdoc in Neuroscience and Stem Cell Research (University of California – San Francisco)

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