New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can reprogram the brain’s “place cells,” which are typically associated with location, to encode all kinds of environmental information.
Category: neuroscience – Page 261
They look like storm clouds that could fit on the head of a pin: Organoids are three-dimensional cell cultures that play a key role in medical and clinical research. This is thanks to their ability to replicate tissue structures and organ functions in the petri dish. Scientists can use organoids to understand how diseases occur, how organs develop, and how drugs work.
Single-cell technologies allow researchers to drill down to the molecular level of the cells. With spatial transcriptomics, they can observe which genes in the organoids are active and where over time.
The miniature organs are usually derived from stem cells. These are cells that haven’t differentiated at all, or only minimally. They can become any kind of cell, such as heart or kidney cells, muscle cells, or neurons. To make stem cells differentiate, scientists “feed” them with growth factors and embed them in a nutrient solution.
An excellent short review on structure and function of the hypothalamus, one of my favorite regions of the brain! Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh8488 #neuroscience #biology
The hypothalamus (“hypo” meaning below, and “thalamus” meaning bed) consists of regulatory circuits that support basic life functions that ensure survival. Sitting at the interface between peripheral, environmental, and neural inputs, the hypothalamus integrates these sensory inputs to influence a range of physiologies and behaviors. Unlike the neocortex, in which a stereotyped cytoarchitecture mediates complex functions across a comparatively small number of neuronal fates, the hypothalamus comprises upwards of thousands of distinct cell types that form redundant yet functionally discrete circuits. With single-cell RNA sequencing studies revealing further cellular heterogeneity and modern photonic tools enabling high-resolution dissection of complex circuitry, a new era of hypothalamic mapping has begun. Here, we provide a general overview of mammalian hypothalamic organization, development, and connectivity to help welcome newcomers into this exciting field.
On this Christmas day, when many of us think of departed loved ones, we have a holiday special for you: A frank conversation with neurosurgeon and near-death experiencer Dr. Eben Alexander, on the survival of consciousness beyond brain function.
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Researchers in Sweden have identified an epigenetic mechanism for over-consolidating fear memories in these circuits.
A study identified an epigenetic mechanism that explains why fear memories tend to become over-concentrated in certain circuits in the brain.
Use of high elevation in warfare requires high cognitive skills but is not uniquely human. This study shows that wild chimpanzees can detect their enemies from afar by exploiting hilltops in their topographic landscape, allowing them to assess the risk and adjust their movements accordingly.
Researchers led by a team at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a device that can isolate blood flow to the brain, keeping the organ alive and functioning independent from the rest of the body for several hours.
The device, tested using a pig brain model and described in Scientific Reports, could lead to new ways to study the human brain without influence from other bodily functions. It also could inform the design of machines for cardiopulmonary bypass that better replicate natural blood flow to the brain. The findings build on previous research by study leader Juan Pascual, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues.
This novel method enables research that focuses on the brain independent… More.
Using nanoparticles administered directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a research team has developed a treatment that may overcome significant challenges in treating a particularly deadly brain cancer.
The researchers, led by professors Mark Saltzman and Ranjit Bindra, administered to mice with medulloblastoma a treatment that features specially designed drug-carrying nanoparticles. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed that mice who received this treatment lived significantly longer than mice in the control group.
Medulloblastoma, a brain cancer that predominantly affects children, often begins with a tumor deep inside the brain. The cancer is prone to spread along two protective membranes known as the leptomeninges throughout the central nervous system, particularly the surface of the brain and the CSF.
Identifying therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative conditions is often challenging due to the limited accessibility of reproducible, scalable in vitro cell models. Genome-level CRISPR screens are useful for these studies but performing screens that include the necessary replicates requires billions of cells. Human iPSC-derived cells can provide the needed scale, however, the complex process of directed differentiation is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and rarely feasible. Furthermore, delivering ribonucleases by transfection or transduction is inefficient in human iPSC-derived cells, especially delicate cell types like neurons. As a result, scientists often rely on immortalized cell lines, which do not accurately represent human biology or disease states, to run large-scale CRISPR screens.
In this GEN webinar, two experts will discuss solutions for running large-scale CRISPR screens to identify therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases. They will present ioCRISPR-Ready Cells™: human iPSC-derived cells precision reprogrammed with opti-ox™, that constitutively express Cas9 nuclease, which are built for rapidly generating gene knockouts and CRISPR screens. During the webinar, you’ll learn about two peer-reviewed studies that performed large scale CRISPR knockout screens using opti-ox powered glutamatergic neurons with stable Cas9 expression. The first study demonstrates a loss-of-function genetic screen using a human druggable genome library. The second study investigated possible regulators of the RNA binding motif 3 protein, whose enhanced expression is highly neuroprotective both in vitro and in vivo.
Metabolites called nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and can impact cancer’s sensitivity or resistance to chemotherapy and radiation in brain cancer. Findings from researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center, published in Cancer Discovery, show how a specific nucleotide metabolite, called GTP, controls responses to radiation and chemotherapy in an unexpected way.
“We learned that if you increase a cell’s GTP levels, it makes it really resistant to radiation or chemotherapy. Lowering GTP levels, the cell becomes much more sensitive,” said Daniel Wahl, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology at Michigan Medicine and senior author of this paper.
Researchers have long known that levels of nucleotides like GTP control how fast DNA damage is repaired, which in turn controls sensitivity to therapies.