Neurons News and Research

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Developing a Fluorescent Sensor to Visualize Neuronal Self-Connectivity

How do brain cells, or neurons, distinguish their own processes and those of other neurons when they send out processes to connect with other neurons? A molecule known as clustered protocadherin (Pcdh) plays an important role in this puzzle.

19 Jul 2023

Berkeley Lab and Genentech Team Up to Develop Next-Generation Drug Delivery System

Many diseases can be successfully treated in the simple environment of a cell culture dish, but to successfully treat real people, the drug agent has to take a journey through the infinitely more complex environment within our bodies and arrive, intact, inside the affected cells.

18 Jul 2023

Scientists Discover How Brain's "Population Clock" Guides Behavior

From Aristotle's musings on the nature of time to Einstein's theory of relativity, humanity has long pondered: how do we perceive and understand time? The theory of relativity posits that time can stretch and contract, a phenomenon known as time dilation. Just as the cosmos warps time, our neural circuits can stretch and compress our subjective experience of time. As Einstein famously quipped, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute".

14 Jul 2023

Novel Drug Compound Reduces Sensory Hypersensitivity in Fragile X Mice

Boosting the activity of inhibitory interneurons in Fragile X mice reduced their hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli, according to a new Neuron study led by UCLA Health researchers.

14 Jul 2023

Glucose-Sensing Neurons May Play a Role in Regulating Blood Sugar

The body's blood glucose level needs to be maintained in a relatively narrow range. It cannot be too high, as it can lead to diabetes, and it cannot be too low because it can cause fainting or even death.

12 Jul 2023

Cryo-EM Reveals Structure of GABA Transporter

Using Cryo-EM, a powerful microscopy technique, researchers at IISc and collaborators have decoded the molecular architecture of a transporter protein controlling the movement of a key neurotransmitter.

7 Jul 2023

Analyzing Glioma Progression and Implicating CPNs’ Long-Range Projections

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive and lethal form of brain tumor. Despite treatment, GBM recurrence is inevitable and tends to occur outside surgical margins or in locations remote to the primary tumor, highlighting the central role played by tumor infiltration in this malicious disease.

29 Jun 2023

Probiotic Bacteria may Help Maintain Brain Function in Aging Nematodes

A group from Nagoya University in Japan has discovered that when the diet of nematodes, tiny worms measuring about a millimeter or less in length, includes the bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri, the weakening of associative learning ability caused by aging does not occur.

28 Jun 2023

New Technology can Help Probe the Connections Between the Brain and Gut

The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors.

23 Jun 2023

First Brain Atlas of Dwarf Cuttlefish

Anything with three hearts, blue blood and skin that can change colors like a display in Times Square is likely to turn heads.

21 Jun 2023

New Mechanism to Maintain Astrocyte-Neuron Communication

Neurons and astrocytes are the two types of cells required by the brain to enjoy the scent of morning coffee and freshly baked cookies or to discern the warning smell of something burning.

16 Jun 2023

Achieving 3D Printing Inside 'Mini-Organs' Growing in Hydrogels

Scientists from the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (a collaboration between GOSH and UCL), London, and University of Padova, Italy, have shown for the first time how 3D printing can be achieved inside 'mini-organs' growing in hydrogels -- controlling their shape, activity, and even forcing tissue to grow into 'molds.'

12 Jun 2023

Squids Use RNA Recording to Change Key Proteins Dynamically

Octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid are members of the diverse family of marine creatures known as cephalopods. They can be found in every ocean, from warm tropical seas that are shallow to cold, abysmal depths.

9 Jun 2023

Can Temperature Influence the Octopus Neural Transcriptome?

Each cell has a finite set of instructions inscribed in its DNA. Life, on the other hand, is unpredictable, and when the situation changes, animals must change.

9 Jun 2023

Scientists Discover the Mechanisms of Synaptic Pruning in Brain Development

Researchers at Kyushu University have uncovered the mechanisms of a fundamental yet critically under-looked phase in brain development: synaptic pruning.

8 Jun 2023

New Delivery Mechanism Brings Messenger RNA to the Point of Need in Neurons

Brain cells manufacture proteins in every corner, including their long branches. Neurons missing this ability cause severe neurological disorders like disability and epilepsy.

5 Jun 2023

Revealing How Human Brains Encode and Retain Value-Based Information

Researchers from the Center for Cognition and Sociality (CCS) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) recently announced the discovery of neurons that allow us to recognize others. The research team discovered that the neurons that deal with the information associated with different individuals are located in the CA1 region of the hippocampus.

2 Jun 2023

RNA Regulatory Mechanism Involving Stress Granules Directly Regulates Alzheimer’s Development

A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 10, entitled, "Stress granules sequester Alzheimer's disease-associated gene transcripts and regulate disease-related neuronal proteostasis."

2 Jun 2023

High-Resolution, Stable Brain Stimulation by Ultraflexible Nanoelectrodes

Conventional implantable medical devices designed for brain stimulation are often too rigid and bulky for what is one of the body's softest and most delicate tissues.

31 May 2023

Game-Changing Research Shows Astrocytes as Key Regulators of Alzheimer's Disease Progression

Why do some people develop Alzheimer's disease while others don't? And, even more puzzlingly, why do many individuals whose brains are chock-full of toxic amyloid aggregates-;a telltale sign of Alzheimer's brain pathology-;never go on to develop Alzheimer's-associated dementias?

30 May 2023