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Category: neuroscience – Page 831

Scientists at work in laboratory. Photo: Public domain via Wikicommons.

CTech – When chemistry Nobel laureate Michael Levitt met his wife two years ago, he didn’t know it would lead to a wonderful friendship with a young Israeli scientist. When Israeli scientist Shahar Barbash decided to found a startup with the aim of cutting down the time needed to develop new medicine, he didn’t know that a friend’s wedding would help him score a meeting with a man many want to meet but few do. But Levitt’s wife is an old friend of Barbash’s parents, and the rest, as they say, is history.

One of the joys of being an old scientist is to encourage extraordinary young ones, Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a professor at Stanford University since 1987, said in a recent interview with Calcalist. He might have met Barbash because his wife knew his family, but that is not enough to make him go into business with someone, Levitt said. “I got on board because his vision excited me, even though I thought it would be very hard to realize.”

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Is this new law anti-kemetic and anti-pagan as it implies only one “God”? And why should atheists put up with this public brainwashing? A new state law that took effect this month requires all public schools in the state’s 149 districts to paint, stencil or otherwise prominently display the national motto.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP)- When students return to public schools across South Dakota this fall, they should expect to see a new message on display: “In God We Trust.”

A new state law that took effect this month requires all public schools in the state’s 149 districts to paint, stencil or otherwise prominently display the national motto.

The South Dakota lawmakers who proposed the law said the requirement was meant to inspire patriotism in the state’s public schools. Displays must be at least 12-by-12 inches and must be approved by the school’s principal, according to the law.

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Patients are about to be enrolled in the first study to test a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR inside the body to try to cure an inherited form of blindness.

People with the disease have normal eyes but lack a gene that converts light into signals to the brain that enable sight.

The experimental treatment aims to supply kids and adults with a healthy version of the gene they lack, using a tool that cuts or “edits” DNA in a specific spot. It’s intended as a onetime treatment that permanently alters the person’s native DNA.

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For the cells in our bodies to function as a unit, they must communicate with one another constantly. They secrete signalling molecules—ions, proteins and nucleic acids—that are picked up by adjacent cells, which in turn pass on the signal to other cells. Our muscles, digestive system and brain are only able to function thanks to this type of communication. And this is the only way in which our immune system can recognise pathogens or infected cells and react accordingly—again, by sending out signals to mobilise the immune defences. If something goes wrong with this signalling between cells, it can lead to diseases such as cancer or autoimmune disorders. “This is why it is important to research which signals the cells send out in which situations,” says Morteza Aramesh. The biophysicist, who works in the Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics at ETH Zurich, has developed a new method that does precisely that: it listens to communication between individual cells.

An innovative nanosensor

Although it has been possible to measure these signals in the past, it could only be done for entire populations of hundreds or thousands of . The methods were not sensitive enough to use on , meaning that the signalling molecules from individual cells were submerged into the average of the total cell population: “It was impossible to detect differences between cells in order to identify diseased cells, for instance,” says Aramesh.

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Restless rapid eye movement (REM) sleep impedes emotional processing, which may contribute to mood and anxiety disorders, new research suggests.

A team of Dutch investigators used fMRI to scan the brains of participants who underwent a stressful experience — in this case, hearing themselves sing out of tune. Brain activity was measured using electroencephalography (EEG).

The next morning, after spending the night in a sleep laboratory, participants were subjected to the same unpleasant experience. Those who had experienced REM sleep were less distressed, whereas those with restless REM sleep were once again upset.

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A few years ago, researchers discovered that abnormalities in microbial communities, or microbiomes, in the intestine appear to contribute to childhood malnutrition. Now comes word that this discovery is being translated into action, with a new study showing that foods formulated to repair the “gut microbiome” may help malnourished kids rebuild their health [1].

In a month-long clinical trial in Bangladesh, 63 children received either regular foods to treat malnutrition or alternative formulations for needed calories and nutrition that also encouraged growth of beneficial microbes in the intestines. The kids who ate the microbiome-friendly diets showed improvements in their microbiome, which helps to extract and metabolize nutrients in our food to help the body grow. They also had significant improvements in key blood proteins associated with bone growth, brain development, immunity, and metabolism; those who ate standard therapeutic food did not experience the same benefit.

Globally, malnutrition affects an estimated 238 million children under the age 5, stunting their normal growth, compromising their health, and limiting their mental development [2]. Malnutrition can arise not only from a shortage of food but from dietary imbalances that don’t satisfy the body’s need for essential nutrients. Far too often, especially in impoverished areas, the condition can turn extremely severe and deadly. And the long term effects on intellectual development can limit the ability of a country’s citizens to lift themselves out of poverty.

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HELLO! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6025786/

With approximately 40 million adults across the United States experiencing anxiety each year, scientists and researchers have dedicated their careers to trying to better understand this condition. Despite this work, we are still somewhat unclear on what actually causes this condition to occur.

Characterized by feelings of nervousness and restlessness, increased heart rate, hyperventilation, sweating, trembling, difficulty concentrating and uncontrolled worry, it has the ability to impact every area of one’s life. There are many theories regarding the root cause of the condition, including genetics, brain chemistry, environmental factors or other medical factors and/or disease, however, nothing has been proven definitively. Instead, the scientific community continues to explore these leads further in the hope of an answer.

One small study out of Japan may provide an important insight into the connection between nutritional deficiencies and mental health, revealing that low levels of vitamin B6 and iron may actually trigger the chemical changes in the brain responsible for panic attacks, hyperventilation and other forms of anxiety.

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