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‘Study Reveals Why Brain Has Limited Capacity for Repair After Stroke’

By Guest PostNovember 4, 2010Health, Scienceadult disability, brain, brain cells, brain repair, chemical system, neurological recovery, phasic inhibition, recovery, stroke, stroke damage, tom carmichael, tonic inhibition

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability, due to the brain’s limited capacity for recovery. Physical rehabilitation is the only current treatment following a stroke, and there are no medications available to help promote neurological recovery.

Now, a new UCLA study published Nov. 3 in the journal Nature offers insights into a major limitation in the brain’s ability to recover function after a stroke and identifies a promising medical therapy to help overcome this limitation.

Researchers interested in how the brain repairs itself already know that when the brain suffers a stroke, it becomes excitable, firing off an excessive amount of brain cells, which die off. The UCLA researchers found that a rise in a chemical system known as “tonic inhibition” immediately after a stroke causes a reduction in this level of excitability. (more…)

Turning the Tide on South Africa’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic

By Guest PostNovember 2, 20102 commentsHealthaids activists, aids epidemic, epidemic of aids, picture of aids

Dr. Thembi Xulu. Image credit: Yale University

Thirty years after it was given a name, the epidemic of AIDS and its related illnesses continues to kill millions of people around the world. But nowhere are the numbers as high today as in sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular, the nation of South Africa.

Last week, a physician who has watched her country seesaw from denial to resolve delivered the seventh annual C. Davenport Cook Grand Rounds Lecture in International Child Health at Yale School of Medicine, speaking about how things are changing in South Africa and, perhaps, all of sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the changes she described are medical, others, attitudinal.

Dr. Thembi Xulu is medical director of Right to Care, a leading non-profit HIV/AIDS organization based in Johannesburg, as well as one of this year’s Yale World Fellows. Xulu has for many years been a persistent advocate for educating South Africans about the causes of AIDS and ways to prevent it, and for bringing affordable medication to those afflicted with it. She has grappled with governments in denial, unyielding cultural traditions, lack of funding and victims too ashamed to seek help. (more…)

Breakthrough: Scientists Harness the Power of Electricity in the Brain

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2010Health, Sciencebiomedical engineering, brain, brain impulses, brain waves, daniel ferris, electrical brain activity, electrode, harnesses, joe gwin, mri-based model, neuroscience, orchestra, paralyzed patient, power of electricity, robotic exoskeleton, symphony

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A paralyzed patient may someday be able to “think” a foot into flexing or a leg into moving, using technology that harnesses the power of electricity in the brain, and scientists at University of Michigan School of Kinesiology are now one big step closer.

Researchers at the school and colleagues from the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego have developed technology that for the first time allows doctors and scientists to noninvasively isolate and measure electrical brain activity in moving people. (more…)

Knowledge of Genetic Cancer Risks Often Dies with Patients, Finds VCU Massey Cancer Center

By Guest PostOctober 29, 20101 commentHealth, Sciencebanking, cancer, cancer patients, dna testing, genetic risk, genetic testing, genetics, hereditary, john m quillin, thomas j smith, vcu massey researchers

Richmond, Va. – If you were dying from cancer, would you consider genetic testing? A recent study conducted by researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center showed that most terminally ill cancer patients who were eligible for genetic testing never received it despite that it could potentially save a relative’s life.

The research, “Exploring Hereditary Cancer Among Dying Cancer Patients—A Cross-Sectional Study of Hereditary Risk and Perceived Awareness of DNA Testing and Banking,” was recently published in the Journal of Genetic Counseling, and is the first to document the prevalence of hereditary cancer risk and the need for genetic services and patient education among terminally ill cancer patients. (more…)

Obesity: Yale Researcher Explains Why It’s All in Our Heads

By Guest PostOctober 28, 20101 commentHealth, Sciencealzheimer, appetite, diabetes, environmental factors, estrogen, genetic, higher brain functions, human brain imaging, hungary, hypothalamus, metabolic disorders, metabolism, neurodegenerative diseases, obesity, parkinson, pioneer award, tamas horvath, type 2 diabetes, veterinary medicine, yale daily bulletin

Tamas Horvath. Image credit: Yale University

Tamas Horvath is the first to tell you that he doesn’t study obesity. But his research on the effects of metabolism on higher brain functions could provide deeper understanding of the brain’s link to appetite, weight and to metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity.

His lab was the first to provide evidence that the brain uses fat as fuel. Horvath has also studied how endocrine signals in the brain regulate neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Horvath followed his father and grandfather into veterinary medicine in his native Hungary, but his training sparked a passion for basic research. His achievements have earned him a long title that speaks to his varied research interests. He became chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine at Yale School of Medicine in 2005, and he is also a professor in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and Neurobiology. Horvath also heads the Program on Integrative Cell Signaling and the Neurobiology of Metabolism. (more…)

The Promise of Ion Beam Cancer Therapy

By Guest PostOctober 23, 20101 commentHealthcancer therapy, effective therapy, ion beam, ion-beam therapy, medical therapy, nuclear medicine

For certain kinds of cancer, the most effective therapy does not use x-rays or gamma rays but beams of ions, the electrically charged cores of atoms, including hydrogen ions (protons) and heavier ions such as carbon and neon. (more…)

X-Ray Diffraction May Play Key Role in Stopping ‘Kissing Bug,’ Fungus

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2010Health, Scienceaspergillus fumigates, blood-sucking insect, chagas parasite, crime scenes, cure, dale karr, drugs, enzyme, fungus, john tanner, kissing bug, organisms, pablo sobrado, parasite, pathogens, pulmonary diseases, south america, sugar molecule, virginia tech, x ray diffraction

John Tanner, who also teaches chemistry in the College of Arts and Science, is studying Aspergillus fumigatus. Image credit: University of Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. – If finding the cure for a fungus and parasite that affects millions of people were the subject of a detective show, University of Missouri Chemistry Professor John Tanner would be the forensic expert in the lab, using high-tech equipment to make a model that could eventually solve the crime.

Tanner, who also teaches chemistry in the College of Arts and Science, has joined forces with Pablo Sobrado, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Virginia Tech, to study a unique enzyme found on two “crime scenes”: in Aspergillus fumigatus, a fungus that causes pulmonary diseases in immuno-compromised people; and in a blood-sucking insect prevalent in South America and now being found in the southwestern U.S., called the Chagas parasite, also known as the “kissing bug” for the red welts left on the victims’ faces after being bitten in his or her sleep.

“My job is to figure out what the enzyme looks like using X-ray diffraction,” Tanner said. “This enzyme makes a special sugar molecule that these organisms need to survive, so if we can find a way to stop the reaction that makes that sugar, then we might find a way to kill these pathogens.” (more…)

Discovery of a Mechanism that Controls the Expression of a Protein Involved in Numerous Cancers

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2010Healthcancer, deadliest cancers, mechanism

Marc Therrien. Image credit: University of Montreal

Researchers at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal have identified a new mechanism controlling the transmission of an abnormal signal at the origin of several cancers. In an article published in the journal Cell, Marc Therrien’s team explains the recent discovery of a protein complex that controls the RAS/MAPK signalling pathway, responsible for some of the deadliest cancers, including pancreatic, colon and lung cancers, and melanomas. This regulating mechanism could prove to be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of these diseases. The study conducted on the drosophila model organism is to be verified in humans in a forthcoming step. (more…)

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