Posts Under Tech News Category
[TECH NEWS] Researchers have learned how a synthetic molecule destroys complexes that induce allergic responses—a discovery that could lead to the development of highly potent, rapidly acting interventions for a host of acute allergic reactions. The study, published online Oct. 28 in Nature, was led by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Bern, Switzerland. The… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] For the first time, an assembly of thousands of nano-machines capable of producing a coordinated contraction movement extending up to around ten micrometers, like the movements of muscular fibers, has been synthesized by a CNRS team from the Institut Charles Sadron. This innovative work, headed by Nicolas Giuseppone, professor at the Université de Strasbourg, and involving researchers from… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A team of neuroscientists has proposed a new and potentially revolutionary way of obtaining a neuronal connectivity map (the “connectome”) of the whole brain of the mouse. Details were set forth October 23 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. The team, led by Professor Anthony Zador, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, aims to provide a comprehensive account… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A research team from Stanford University has found that injecting the blood of young mice into older mice can cause new neural development and improved memory. Team leader Saul Villeda presented the group’s findings at this year’s Society for Neuroscience conference. The researchers were following up on work by another team also led by Villeda that last year… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] For decades, patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have had the same experience. Their hands start to shake uncontrollably, their limbs become rigid and they lose their balance. Years before those movement problems set in, many begin struggling with fainting, incontinence, sexual dysfunction, anxiety and depression. Most patients are still treated with a 42-year-old drug called L-DOPA, which temporarily… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies in the Western world, and is often diagnosed only after metastatic tumors have formed in other organs. In three percent of cases, these metastases are lethal. A research team led by PD Dr. Beatrice Bachmeier at LMU Munich has been studying the mode of action of a natural product… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Although tumor metastasis causes about 90 percent of cancer deaths, the exact mechanism that allows cancer cells to spread from one part of the body to another is not well understood. One key question is how tumor cells detach from the structural elements that normally hold tissues in place, then reattach themselves in a new site. A new… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] This summer Google set a new landmark in the field of artificial intelligence with software that learned how to recognize cats, people, and other things simply by watching YouTube videos (see “Self-Taught Software“). That technology, modeled on how brain cells operate, is now being put to work making Google’s products smarter, with speech recognition being the first service to benefit, Technology… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS, Progeria), is a rare, fatal, “rapid-aging” childhood disease that is linked to the normal aging process. Results of the first-ever clinical drug trial for children with the disease demonstrate the efficacy of a treatment using a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), a drug originally developed to treat cancer. The clinical trial results, completed only six years… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] One of the greatest challenges in neuroscience is to identify the map of synaptic connections between neurons. Called the “connectome,” it is the holy grail that will explain how information flows in the brain. In a landmark paper, published the week of 17th of September in PNAS, the EPFL’s Blue Brain Project (BBP) has identified key principles that determine… Read more »
