DAVID WAHLBERG
Using stem cells from monkeys with a condition like Parkinsonâs disease, UW-Madison researchers grew brain cells that produce a chemical depleted by the disease. When they injected the cells into the monkeysâ brains, the animalsâ Parkinsonâs-like rigid movements were replaced by more fluid walking and climbing. LOGAN WROGE, STATE JOURNAL
The results are promising enough that the researchers hope to begin work on applications for human patients soon, said UWâMadison neuroscientist Su-Chun Zhang, whose Waisman Center lab grew the brain cells.
âThis result in primates is extremely powerful, particularly for translating our discoveries to the clinic,â Zhang, senior author of the study published this month in the journal Nature Medicine, said in a statement.
Study shows how mutant huntingtin protein triggers brain cell death
In 1993, scientists discovered that a single mutated gene, HTT, caused Huntington s disease, raising high hopes for a quick cure. Yet today, there s still no approved treatment.
One difficulty has been a limited understanding of how the mutant huntingtin protein sets off brain cell death, says neuroscientist Srinivasa Subramaniam, Ph.D., of Scripps Research, Florida.
In a new study published in
Nature Communications on Friday, Subramaniam s group has shown that the mutated huntingtin protein slows brain cells protein-building machines, called ribosomes.
The ribosome has to keep moving along to build the proteins, but in Huntington s disease, the ribosome is slowed. The difference maybe two, three, four-fold slower. That makes all the difference.
Scientists seek to enhance artificial intelligence by integrating brain cells
With a new grant from the U.S. Army, a team of scientists will seek to enhance artificial intelligence by integrating brain cells called astrocytes.
By encoding a feature of biological intelligence called reinforcement learning, in which we iteratively learn from successes and failures, deep neural networks (DNNs) have revolutionized artificial intelligence with spectacular demonstrations of mastery in Chess and Go.
But they struggle to deal with the real-world problems encountered daily by humans and other animals. A new collaboration based at MIT posits that a fundamental shortcoming of deep neural networks is that they are merely neural.
Discovery offers a precise route to treat inflammation associated with neuropathic pain
One of the hallmarks of chronic pain is inflammation, and scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have discovered that anti-inflammatory cells called MRC1
+ macrophages are dysfunctional in an animal model of neuropathic pain. Returning these cells to their normal state could offer a route to treating debilitating pain caused by nerve damage or a malfunctioning nervous system.
The researchers, who published their work in
Neuron, found that stimulating the expression of an anti-inflammatory protein called CD163 reduced signs of neuroinflammation in the spinal cord of mice with neuropathic pain.