Healthinnovations

Controlling a single brain chemical expands window for learning language, music in animal model.

Learning language or music is usually a breeze for children, however, as even young adults know, that capacity declines dramatically with age. Now, a study from researchers at St. Jude
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Magnetised bacteriophages successfully punch through biofilms to reach targets.

A vast number of the pathogens are grouped into communities called biofilms. Biofilms are where bacteria join together on a surface and start to form a protective matrix around their
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Two new network of neurons in the brainstem identified in appetite regulation.

Hunger, driven by negative energy balance, elicits the craving and consumption of food. Whilst this response is in part mediated by neurons in the hypothalamus, the role of specific cell
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Neuron-like cells provide nervous system with window into the gut.

Dietary, microbial, and inflammatory factors modulate the gut-brain information highway, ranging from metabolism to cognition. The gut epithelium is a principal site for detecting such agents, however, precisely how it
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Researchers identify previously unknown telomere-specific protein.

Telomeres are found at the end of chromosomes and represent the clock of a cell. A person is born with telomeres of a certain length, and every time a cell
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Nano-prosthetics to repair neural circuitry.

Neurons are continuously exposed to signals generated by the extracellular environment at the nanoscale to drive key biological tasks. This ability has been exploited to engineer interfaces with nanostructures with
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Study identifies the brain cells which regulate the Pavlovian response.

In his famous experiment, Ivan Pavlov rang a bell each time he fed his dogs. Soon, the dogs began drooling in anticipation when they heard the bell, even before food
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Pre-clinical study suggests Parkinson’s could start in the gut.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with devastating clinical manifestations. Recent research on Parkinson’s disease has focused on the gut-brain connection, examining patients’ gut bacteria. However, researchers understand little
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First human study targets cortical neurons in the brain to improve motor function.

The spinal cord is very sensitive to injury, however, unlike other parts of the body, the spinal cord does not have the ability to repair itself when damaged. A spinal
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Study finds small colony of neurons modulate amount of insulin the pancreas produces.

The brain is the key regulator of appetite, body weight and metabolism. Specifically, there is a small group of hypothalamus neurons, named the Proopiomelanocortin neurons (POMC), which can detect and
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