Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have tested a novel method of providing cells with healthy mitochondria to fight Parkinson’s disease [1].

Parkinson’s disease is the second-most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, and it affects 10 million people worldwide. The disease is age-related, as its prevalence rises rapidly in people older than 65, although some people are diagnosed much earlier. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by both motor and mental problems: tremor, rigidity (stiffness), and slowness of movement along with memory and thinking deficits.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by the loss of dopamine-producing (dopaminergic) neurons in a brain region called the substantia nigra. Therapeutic options are limited, and some of the existing ones cause nasty side effects.

“The subvolt regime, which is where this material operates, is of enormous interest to researchers looking to make circuits that act similarly to the human brain, which also operates with great energy efficiency.” — Argonne materials scientist Wei Chen “Redox” refers to a chemical reaction that…

As the integrated circuits that power our electronic devices get more powerful, they are also getting smaller. This trend of microelectronics has only accelerated in recent years as scientists try to fit increasingly more semiconducting components on a chip.

Microelectronics face a key challenge because of their small size. To avoid overheating, microelectronics need to consume only a fraction of the electricity of conventional electronics while still operating at peak performance.

Continue reading “Scientists use novel technique to create new energy-efficient microelectronic device” »

The eyes can reveal a lot about the health of our brain. Indeed, problems with the eyes can be one of the earliest signs of cognitive decline. Our latest study shows that a loss of visual sensitivity can predict dementia 12 years before it is diagnosed.

Our research was based on 8,623 healthy people in Norfolk, England, who were followed up for many years. By the end of the study, 537 participants had developed dementia, so we could see what factors might have preceded this diagnosis.

At the start of the study, we asked participants to take a visual sensitivity test. For the test, they had to press a button as soon as they saw a triangle forming in a field of moving dots. People who would develop dementia were much slower to see this triangle on the screen than people who would remain without dementia.

Columbia neuroscientists have identified a genetic mutation that fends off Alzheimer’s in people at high risk and could lead to a new way to protect people from the disease.

Rice University engineers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient. Thanks to pioneering magnetoelectric power transfer technology, the pea-sized device developed in the Rice lab of Jacob Robinson in collaboration with Motif Neurotech and clinicians Dr. Sameer Sheth and Dr. Sunil Sheth can be powered wirelessly via an external transmitter and used to stimulate the brain through the dura ⎯ the protective membrane attached to the bottom of the skull.

The device, known as the Digitally programmable Over-brain Therapeutic (DOT), could revolutionize treatment for drug-resistant depression and other psychiatric or neurological disorders by providing a therapeutic alternative that offers greater patient autonomy and accessibility than current neurostimulation-based therapies and is less invasive than other brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).

Continue reading “Rice team demonstrates miniature brain stimulator in humans” »

Over the course of their lives, humans build subjective internal models outlining the associations between specific environmental stimuli and rewards that could be gained from interacting with them. These experience-based models allow them to infer what benefits they could gain from acting in specific ways.

If we can prove the concept of this technology in the two diseases we’re studying, we can then apply it to hundreds or thousands of diseases of the brain.

Yong-Hui Jiang, MD, PhD

Yes, please. Huntington disease hopefully.

Continue reading “Large NIH Grant Supports CRISPR-based Gene Therapy Development for Brain Diseases” »

A MUM who couldn’t sleep due to a “funny” whirring sound in her ear realised she had been hearing symptoms of her cancer after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Denise Wingfield, 55, was initially told dull noise in her right ear keeping her up at night was tinnitus, having been referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist.

NIH-funded research in siblings finds previously reported connection is likely due to other underlying factors.

What

Acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy is not linked to the risk of developing autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability, according to a new study of data from more than 2 million children in Sweden. The collaborative research effort by Swedish and American investigators, which appears in JAMA, is the largest of its kind and was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).