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Scientists Report Breakthrough in DNA Editing Technology
Cocaine Use Leads to Rapid Growth of New Mouse Brain Structures
Brain uses the cortex for making sensory associations, not the hippocampus
Computer test reveals high prevalence of attention disorders in stroke patients
Physicist finds that E. coli replicate close to thermodynamic limits of efficiency
Touch and Movement Neurons Shape the Brain’s Internal Image of the Body
Even Mild Stress Can Make it Difficult to Control Your Emotions
New Study Supports Intracerebral Injections of Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells to Prevent or Reduce Post-Stroke Cognitive Deficits
Why do Haters Have to Hate? Newly Identified Personality Trait Holds Clues
Pastured ‘wild’ horses to cost U.S. $1 billion by 2030, researchers warn in report
Video games do not make vulnerable teens more violent
Skin and food allergies can be result of skin cell 'glue' defeciency
Study reveals new approach to remedying childhood visual disorders
Study offers insight into the origin of the genetic code, team reports
New risk genes for schizophrenia discovered

Scientists Report Breakthrough in DNA Editing Technology

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 07:36 AM PDT

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to apply a powerful new DNA-editing technology more broadly than ever before.

“This is one of the hottest tools in biology, and we’ve now found a way to target it to any DNA sequence,” said Carlos F. Barbas III, the Janet and Keith Kellogg II Chair in Molecular Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at TSRI.

Cocaine Use Leads to Rapid Growth of New Mouse Brain Structures

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 07:15 AM PDT

Mice given cocaine showed rapid growth in new brain structures associated with learning and memory, according to a research team from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco. The findings suggest a way in which drug use may lead to drug-seeking behavior that fosters continued drug use, according to the scientists.

Brain uses the cortex for making sensory associations, not the hippocampus

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 06:51 AM PDT

‘Where’ and ‘how’ memories are encoded in a nervous system is one of the most challenging questions in biological research. The formation and recall of associative memories is essential for an independent life. The hippocampus has long been considered a centre in the brain for the long-term storage of spatial associations.

Computer test reveals high prevalence of attention disorders in stroke patients

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 06:42 AM PDT

A majority of stroke patients have problems paying attention and could be helped by brain-training computer games, a new study suggests. Researchers at Imperial College London found that problems such as difficulty filtering out distractions, difficulty following instructions, and reduced alertness are much more common in stroke patients than doctors realise.

Physicist finds that E. coli replicate close to thermodynamic limits of efficiency

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 06:35 AM PDT

All living things must obey the laws of physics — including the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the universe’s disorder, or entropy, can only grow. Highly ordered cells and organisms appear to contradict this principle, but they actually do conform because they generate heat that increases the universe’s overall entropy.

Still, questions remain: What is the theoretical threshold for how much heat a living cell must generate to fulfill its thermodynamic constraints? And how closely do cells approach that limit?

Touch and Movement Neurons Shape the Brain’s Internal Image of the Body

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 12:20 PM PDT

The brain’s tactile and motor neurons, which perceive touch and control movement, may also respond to visual cues, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

The study in monkeys, which appears online Aug. 26, 2013, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides new information on how different areas of the brain may work together in continuously shaping the brain’s internal image of the body, also known as the body schema.

Even Mild Stress Can Make it Difficult to Control Your Emotions

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 12:11 PM PDT

Even mild stress can thwart therapeutic measures to control emotions, a team of neuroscientists at New York University has found. Their findings, which appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to the limits of clinical techniques while also shedding new light on the barriers that must be overcome in addressing afflictions such as fear or anxiety.

New Study Supports Intracerebral Injections of Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells to Prevent or Reduce Post-Stroke Cognitive Deficits

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 11:13 AM PDT

Cognitive deficits following ischemic stroke are common and debilitating, even in the relatively few patients who are treated expeditiously so that clots are removed or dissolved rapidly and cerebral blood flow restored. A new study in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience demonstrates that intracerebral injection of bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BSCs) reduces cognitive deficits produced by temporary occlusion of cerebral blood vessels in a rat model of stroke, suggesting that BSCs may offer a new approach for reducing post-stroke cognitive dysfunction.

Why do Haters Have to Hate? Newly Identified Personality Trait Holds Clues

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 11:00 AM PDT

New research has uncovered the reason why some people seem to dislike everything while others seem to like everything. Apparently, it’s all part of our individual personality – a dimension that researchers have coined “dispositional attitude.”

Pastured ‘wild’ horses to cost U.S. $1 billion by 2030, researchers warn in report

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 10:54 AM PDT

Captive “wild” horses will cost U.S. taxpayers $1 billion by 2030 if federal management approaches don’t change, according to a new report by a pair of researchers who were part of a national committee that studied the issue.

A possible solution, they say: contraceptive vaccines.

Video games do not make vulnerable teens more violent

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 08:59 AM PDT

Do violent video games such as ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Halo’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto’ trigger teenagers with symptoms of depression or attention deficit disorder to become aggressive bullies or delinquents? No, according to Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University and independent researcher Cheryl Olson from the US in a study published in Springer’s Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Skin and food allergies can be result of skin cell 'glue' defeciency

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 08:53 AM PDT

In a new study published in Nature Genetics, Northwestern Medicine and Tel Aviv University scientists have found that a structural defect in skin cells can contribute to allergy development, including skin and food allergies, traditionally thought primarily to be a dysfunction of the immune system.

The finding is related to the team's identification of a new rare genetic disease, called "severe dermatitis, multiple allergies, and metabolic wasting," or SAM, caused by mutations in the molecule desmoglein 1.

Study reveals new approach to remedying childhood visual disorders

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 08:42 AM PDT

By discovering the role of key neurons that mediate an important part of vision development, UC Irvine and UCLA neurobiologists have revealed a new approach to correcting visual disorders in children who suffer from early cataracts or amblyopia, also known as lazy eye.

Study offers insight into the origin of the genetic code, team reports

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 08:36 AM PDT

An analysis of enzymes that load amino acids onto transfer RNAs – an operation at the heart of protein translation – offers new insights into the evolutionary origins of the modern genetic code, researchers report.

Their findings appear in the journal PLOS ONE.

New risk genes for schizophrenia discovered

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 08:28 AM PDT

Research on the underlying causes of schizophrenia are now taking a big leap forward, when scientists at Karolinska Institutet and colleagues in the United States have identified 13 new genetic variants that increase the risk for schizophrenia. The study, which is published in the scientific journal Nature Genetics, is based on blood samples from more than 59 000 individuals and provides the hitherto strongest clues to what causes schizophrenia.