Brain Development Is Guided by Junk DNA that Isn’t Really Junk
Researchers discover a role for long noncoding RNA in brain development and neurodegenerative diseases.
Spring Cleaning in Your Brain: Stem Cell Research Shows How Important Autophagy Is
Years of mouse research lead to discovery of how autophagy keeps neural stem cells ready to replace damaged brain and nerve cells.
Transplanted Brain Cells in Monkeys Light Up Personalized Therapy
Researchers transplanted neural cells, derived from adult skin cells, into monkeys; where they developed into several different types of brain cells. The research could eventually help provide new treatment avenues for patients with a wide range of neurological diseases.
Researchers Uncover Key to Antidepressant Response
Researchers identify a protein that appears to be the target of both antidepressant drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. The experimental results explain how these therapies likely work to relieve depression by stimulating stem cells in the brain to grow and mature.
Researchers at the Doorstep of Stem Cell Therapies for MS, Other Myelin Disorders
Scientists report researchers are now on the threshold of human application of stem cell therapies for a class of neurological diseases known as myelin disorders – a long list of diseases that include conditions such as multiple sclerosis, white matter stroke, cerebral palsy, certain dementias, and rare but fatal childhood disorders called pediatric leukodystrophies.
Aggressive Brain Tumors Can Originate from a Range of Nervous System Cells
Scientists have long believed that glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of primary brain tumor, begins in glial cells that make up supportive tissue in the brain or in neural stem cells. Researchers found that the tumors can originate from other types of differentiated cells in the nervous system, including cortical neurons.
Natural Process Activating Brain’s Immune Cells Could Point Way to Repairing Damaged Brain
The brain’s key “breeder” cells secrete substances that boost the numbers and strength of critical brain-based immune cells believed to play a vital role in brain health. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of how resident stem cells and stem cell transplants may improve brain function.
Scientists Pinpoint Key Player in Parkinson’s Disease Neuron Loss
Stem cell study may help to unravel how a genetic mutation leads to Parkinson’s symptoms. By reprogramming skin cells from Parkinson’s disease patients with a known genetic mutation, researchers identified damage to neural stem cells as a powerful player in Parkinson’s disease.
Neural Stem Cells Regenerate Axons in Severe Spinal Cord Injury
Researchers were able to regenerate an astonishing degree of axonal growth at the site of severe spinal cord injury in rats. Results were then replicated using two human stem cell lines, one already in human trials for ALS. “We obtained the exact results using human cells as we had in the rat cells,” said Tuszynski.
Could a Cancer Drug Potentially Prevent Learning Disabilities in Some Kids?
U-M scientists stop abnormal brain cell growth in mice with neurofibromatosis using experimental tumor drug, make new discoveries in neural stem cells.
