Brain

INDIANAPOLIS —As families across the country face losses of nest eggs, homes or jobs, their young children and teens need emotional support.

PHILADELPHIA – Results of a new study call into question recent clinical guidelines issued by leading cardiovascular groups, including the American Heart Association, which recommend patients with cardiovascular disease be screened for signs of depression and treated accordingly.

Using a new approach that combines scientific technologies to hunt down genetic changes involved in cancer, researchers have discovered 13 tumor suppressor genes that, when mutated, can lead to liver cancers. Twelve of those genes had never been linked to cancer before, according to the report published online in the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, on November 13th.

As any good beer brewer knows, the yeast used in fermentation stick together in large clumps consisting of thousands of cells that settle out where they are easily removed. Brewers had even traced this behavior to a gene that encodes a sticky protein that sits on the surface of yeast cells. But despite the fact that yeast are a major laboratory "workhorse," any further exploration of their social lives had remained almost entirely neglected. Indeed, the "domesticated" yeast commonly studied in genetics labs have had any social tendencies bred out of them.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- An ingenious social behavior that mobilizes yeast cells to cooperate in protecting each other from stress, antibiotics, and other dangers is driven by the activity of a single gene, scientists report this week in the journal Cell. The cooperating cells use the same gene, dubbed FLO1, as a marker for detecting "cheaters," cells that try to profit from the group's protection without investing in the group's welfare.

Like skilled assassins, many diseases seem to know exactly what types of cells to attack. While decimating one cadre of cells, diseases will inexplicably spare a seemingly identical group of neighbors. What makes cells vulnerable or not depends largely on the kinds and amounts of proteins they produce - their "translational profile," in the lingo of molecular biology. For this reason, scientists have struggled to parse the subtle molecular differences among the hundreds of specialized cell types that are tangled together in tissues like the brain.

A landmark national survey on the use of nanotechnology for "human enhancement" shows widespread public support for applications of the new technology related to improving human health. However, the survey also shows broad disapproval for nanotech human enhancement research in areas without health benefits. A team of researchers at North Carolina State University and Arizona State University (ASU) conducted the study, which could influence the direction of future nanotechnology research efforts.

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From a young age we are taught about the five senses and how they help us to explore our world. Although each sense seems to be its own entity, recent studies have indicated that there is actually a lot of overlap and blending of the senses occurring in the brain to help us better perceive our environment.

Whether someone will become the next Richard Branson, Steve Jobs or Henry Ford may be down to whether they make risky decisions, scientists at the University of Cambridge have concluded.

The article, published today in the journal Nature, asserts that entrepreneurs are riskier decision-makers than their managerial counterparts. Additionally, the type of decision-making essential to the entrepreneurial process may be possible to teach or enhanced in the future by pharmaceuticals.

Tampa, Fla. (Nov. 12, 2008) – Multiple sclerosis is a disease caused by the loss of the myelinated sheath surrounding the nerve fibers of the spinal cord. Therapeutic hope for curing multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases has included the possibility that stem cell transplants could help remyelinate the spinal cord. Accordingly, researchers from the University of Cambridge (UK) conducted experiments using animal models to see if the direct implantation of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) (derived from a different rat's adult bone marrow, i.e.

Doctors know that you're at a higher risk for breast, colon and prostate cancers if they've been found in your family. Brain cancer can now be placed on that same list, says a new study by Tel Aviv University and the University of Utah.

Dr. Deborah Blumenthal, co-director of Tel Aviv University's Neuro-oncology Service at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, says that a family history of brain cancer, like those of other cancers, should be reported to the family doctor during a routine medical checkup.

Every day we are faced with a multitude of choices, but the majority of these fall into two categories: descriptive choice (based on what we are told) and experiential choice (based on our own personal experience). An example of these choices would be deciding whether or not to wear a helmet while cycling. If we are told that wearing a helmet is for our safety, then choosing to wear one or not would be a descriptive choice.

With the days getting shorter (and colder) and the Holidays quickly approaching, many of us start thinking back to days gone by. This sentimentality and desire for the past is known as nostalgia. All of us are struck with nostalgic feelings from time to time but a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, indicates that nostalgia may serve a greater purpose than just taking us back to the good old days.