New Neurons Help Us To Remember Fear Researchers report a new way for emotions to affect memory: The brain’s emotional center, the amygdala, induces the hippocampus, a relay hub for memory, to generate new neurons. [Press release from the University of California, Berkley discussing online prepublication in Molecular Psychiatry] Possible Susceptibility Genes Found in Neurodegenerative Disorder An international research team has discovered three potential susceptibility genes for development of progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative disease that causes symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s disease but is resistant to Parkinson’s medications. [Press release from Mayo Clinic discussing online prepublication in Nature Genetics] Brain Scan Identifies Patterns of Plaques and Tangles in Adults with Down Syndrome In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers used a unique brain scan to assess the levels of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in adults with Down syndrome. [Press release from the University of California, Los Angeles discussing online prepublication in Archives of Neurology] Nerve Cells Grown from Stem Cells Give Insight into Parkinson’s Oxford University researchers have succeeded in using stem cell technology to grow nerve cells in the laboratory from initial skin samples taken from Parkinson’s patients. [Oxford University Press Release] Astrocytes Appear to Play an Important Role in Brain Tumors Astrocytes seem to play a crucial role in brain tumor development and dissemination. [Press release from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch discussing research presented at the Brain Tumor Meeting 2011] Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Structural Biologists Reveal Novel Drug Binding Site in NMDA Receptor Subunit Structural biologists have obtained a precise molecular map of the binding site for an allosteric inhibitor in a subtype of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA), which is commonly expressed in brain cells. [Press release from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory discussing online prepublication in Nature] Natural Alzheimer’s Weapon Suggests Better Treatment Scientists have shown a molecular chaperone is working like a waste management company to collect and detoxify high levels of toxic amyloid beta peptide found in Alzheimer’s disease. [Press release from Georgia Health Sciences University discussing online prepublication in Molecular and Cellular Biology] University of Tennessee Scientist Uncovers Trigger to Fatal Neurodegenerative Disease Jeremy Smith, Governor’s Chair for Molecular Biophysics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has helped reveal a key trigger of Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome, a rare but deadly neurodegenerative disease. [Press release from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville discussing online prepublication in the Biophysical Journal] University of California, Riverside Neuroscientists’ Discovery Could Bring Relief to Epilepsy Sufferers To understand exactly how neurons function during epileptic seizures, researchers developed and used realistic computer simulations in their analyses and found that while there is a progressive and slow increase in intracellular sodium during seizure, it is this accumulation of intracellular sodium that leads to the termination of the seizure. [Press release from the University of California, Riverside discussing online prepublication in the Journal of Neuroscience] Morehead State University Students Have Experiment Launched into Space The goal of the experiment aboard Endeavour was to see if the Glioblastoma cell line was influenced by ionizing radiation and microgravity. [Morehead State University Press Release] |