Hui Li, PhD, a Department of Pathology researcher, along with his team discovered that a gene responsible for the deadliest type of brain tumor is also found to be responsible for two forms of childhood cancer. The new discovery may open the door to the first targeted treatments for two types of rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue that primarily strikes young children. Research also suggests the gene may play an important role in other cancers that form in muscle, fat, nerves and other connective tissues in both children and adults. Hui Li, PhD, and team published their findings in the scientific journal PNAS.

Summary: Increasing neurogenesis by deleting the Bax gene in mouse models of Alzheimer’s improved the animals’ performance in tests measuring spatial recognition and contextual memory.

Source: Rockefeller University.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have discovered that increasing the production of new neurons in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rescues the animals’ memory defects.

Summary: Researchers have developed a new sensor that allows scientists to image the brain without missing signals for an extended period of time and deeper in the brain than current technology allows.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine.

As you are reading these words, certain regions of your brain are displaying a flurry of millisecond-fast electrical activity. Visualizing and measuring this electrical activity is crucial to understand how the brain enables us to see, move, behave or read these words.