WASHINGTON — Why do mental illness and drug addiction so often go together" New research reveals that this type of dual diagnosis may stem from a common cause: developmental changes in the amygdala, a walnut-shaped part of the brain linked to fear, anxiety and other emotions. A full report on why these comorbid disorders may develop appears in the December Behavioral Neuroscience, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Research published today in Nature Genetics shows that some rearrangements of the human genome occur more frequently than previously thought. The work is likely to lead to new identification of genes involved in disease and to improve diagnosis of genomic disease.
The scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute looked at four unstable regions in the genome where rearrangements cause genetic diseases, so-called 'genomic disorders', and found that some of these rearrangements were found in sperm much more frequently than expected.
A multidisciplinary team of UCLA scientists were able to differentiate metastatic cancer cells from normal cells in patient samples using leading-edge nanotechnology that measures the softness of the cells.
The person youre speaking with may be looking at you, but are they really paying attention" Or has the person covertly shifted their attention, without moving their eyes" Dr. Brian Corneil, of the Centre for Brain and Mind at The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada has found a way of actually measuring covert attention. His research Neuromuscular consequences of reflexive covert orienting is posted on the Advance Online Publication of "Nature Neuroscience".
Boosting an exercise-related gene in the brain works as a powerful anti-depressant in mice—a finding that could lead to a new anti-depressant drug target, according to a Yale School of Medicine report in Nature Medicine.
“The VGF exercise-related gene and target for drug development could be even better than chemical antidepressants because it is already present in the brain,” said Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study.
Wellcome Trust researchers have identified a key gene involved in the disease Lupus, which affects around 50,000 people in the UK, mostly women. The lead researcher behind the study has called for more patients to volunteer DNA samples to enable them to further study the underlying causes of the disease.
Blocking signals from a key molecular receptor that normally switches on the intestine’s immune response but instead becomes too intense in the presence of stress and toxins may help reverse necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a leading cause of death in premature newborns, according to scientists at the American Society for Cell Biology 47th annual meeting.
There are mice in Baltimore whose skulls were made whole again by bone tissue grown from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).
Healing critical-size defects (defects that would not otherwise heal on their own) in intramembraneous bone, the flat bone type that forms the skull, is a vivid demonstration of new techniques devised by researchers at John Hopkins University to use hESCs for tissue regeneration.
The compound sulforaphane whose natural precursors are found at high levels in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables has been hailed for its chemopreventive powers against cancer. Now sulforaphane has demonstrated new skills in treating a genetic skin blistering disorder called epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS), Pierre Coulombe and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore report at the American Society for Cell Biology 47th Annual Meeting.
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