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.
Using Fat to Fight Brain Cancer
Researchers discover stem cells from a patient’s own fat could potentially deliver new treatments directly to the brain after the removal of a glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer.
Sweet News for Stem Cell’s ‘Holy Grail’
Using a sugar-coated scaffold, researchers move closer to unlocking the therapeutic use of stem cells to treat a wide range of diseases from Alzheimer’s to diabetes.
Researchers Uncover Genetic Clues Which may Lead to Better Understanding of Organ Development and Birth Defects
Researchers have discovered clues to the development of the head at the cellular level, which could point scientists to a better understanding of how organs and birth defects form in humans.
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.
Dickkopf Makes Fountain of Youth in the Brain Run Dry
Scientists have discovered that significantly more neurons are generated in the brains of older animals if the signaling molecule Dickkopf-1 is turned off. The results give rise to the question whether the function of Dickkopf-1 may be turned off using drugs to prevent age related cognitive decline.
How Deficiencies in Two Genes Synergize to Halt Formation of Gut Nervous System
Researchers identify a new gene associated with Hirschprung Disease and show how the migration of cells that form the gut nervous system is impeded when the combined doses of two candidate genes are low. Understanding the genetic basis of HSCR offers hope for better diagnostics and treatment for it and other developmental defects caused by failure of cell migration.
Stem Cell Research Aims to Help Identify Origins of Schizophrenia
New research demonstrates how defects in an important neurological pathway in early development may be responsible for the onset of schizophrenia later in life.
Researchers Turn One Form of Neuron into Another in the Brain
A new finding turns one of the basics of neurobiology on its head, demonstrating that it is possible to turn one type of already differentiated neuron into another within the brain.
