A 'Clear' choice for clearing 3-D cell cultures
Because Brown University biomedical engineering graduate student Molly Boutin needed to study how neural tissues grow from stem cells, she wanted to grow not just a cell culture, but a sphere-shaped...
View ArticleReconstructing 3D neural tissue with biocompatible nanofiber scaffolds and...
Damage to neural tissue is typically permanent and causes lasting disability in patients, but a new approach has recently been discovered that holds incredible potential to reconstruct neural tissue at...
View ArticleNew advancements in 3D designs for neural tissue engineering
It is well known that neurological diseases and injuries pose some of the greatest challenges in modern medicine, with few if any options for effectively treating such diagnoses, but recent work...
View ArticlePilot clinical study into iPS cell therapy for eye disease starts in Japan
RIKEN is pleased to announce the launch of a pilot study to assess the safety and feasibility of the transplantation of autologous induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived retinal pigment...
View ArticleDecoding mechanisms of cell orientation in the brain
When the central nervous system is injured, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPC) migrate to the lesion and synthesize new myelin sheaths on demyelinated axons. Scientists at the Institute of Molecular...
View ArticleNecrostatin-1 counteracts aluminum's neurotoxic effects
Investigators have linked aluminum accumulation in the brain as a possible contributing factor to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. A new study published in Restorative Neurology...
View ArticleStem cells found in gum tissue can fight inflammatory disease
Stem cells found in mouth tissue can not only become other types of cells but can also relieve inflammatory disease, according to a new Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC study in the Journal of Dental...
View ArticleNovel Chinese herbal medicine JSK improves spinal cord injury outcomes in rats
A new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience demonstrates that Chinese herbal medicine Ji-Sui-Kang (JSK), given systemically for three weeks after injury in rats, improved locomotor...
View ArticleAging really is 'in your head'
Among scientists, the role of proteins called sirtuins in enhancing longevity has been hotly debated, driven by contradictory results from many different scientists. But new research at Washington...
View ArticleSchizophrenia: It's in the wiring of the brain
Just as wires must be insulated to effectively carry electrical impulses, nerve cells must be insulated by myelin to effectively transmit neural impulses. Using typical magnetic resonance imaging or...
View ArticleStem cells help repair traumatic brain injury by building a 'biobridge'
University of South Florida researchers have suggested a new view of how stem cells may help repair the brain following trauma. In a series of preclinical experiments, they report that transplanted...
View ArticleStudy finds long-term survival of human neural stem cells transplanted into...
A team of researchers in Korea who transplanted human neural stem cells (hNSCs) into the brains of nonhuman primates and assessed cell survival and differentiation after 22 and 24 months found that the...
View ArticleDeveloping 'tissue chip' to screen neurological toxins
A multidisciplinary team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research is creating a faster, more affordable way to screen for neural toxins, helping flag chemicals...
View ArticleNew hope in central nervous system injury
Winner of the Young Neurosurgeons Abstract Award, Abdullah H. Feroze, B.S., presented his abstract, entitled Neural Placode Tissue Derived from Myelomeningocele Repair Serves as a Viable Source of...
View ArticleTiny spheres of human cells mimic the brain, researchers say
The human brain is a highly organized, three-dimensional mass of cells responsible for our every move, thought and emotion. Snugly housed in the bony confines of the skull, it's also relatively...
View ArticleStem cell-derived 'organoids' help predict neural toxicity
A new system developed by scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin-Madison may provide a faster, cheaper and more biologically relevant way to screen drugs and...
View ArticleIs dopamine to blame for our addictions?
Most researchers agree that the key difference between human brains and those of other animals is the size and complexity of our cerebral cortex, the brain's outer layer of neural tissue. We therefore...
View ArticleNew mathematical models describe diffusion and metabolism dynamics in 3D...
New research has shed light on the complex interactions of stem cell function and molecular diffusion in neural tissue, which may explain many phenomena from stem cell differentiation to the formation...
View ArticleNeural networks show hope for axonal repair in the brain, with minimal...
Lab-grown neural networks have the ability to replace lost axonal tracks in the brains of patients with severe head injuries, strokes or neurodegenerative diseases and can be safely delivered with...
View ArticleEpilepsy drug could protect nerves from damage in multiple sclerosis
An epilepsy drug could lead to a new treatment that protects nerve damage in MS patients, according to research published in the Lancet Neurology.
View ArticleEvidence grows for Zika role in brain damage
Evidence piled up Thursday implicating the Zika virus in a surge of brain damaged babies in Latin America, with two reports of the disease found in the neural tissue of affected infants.
View Article'Broken' heart breakthrough: Researchers reprogram cells to better battle...
Patients with heart failure often have a buildup of scar tissue that leads to a gradual loss of heart function. In a new study published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers from the...
View ArticleBifocals in the brain: Visual information from near and far space processed...
Neuroscientists from Tübingen have discovered how our brain processes visual stimuli above and below the horizon differently. The researchers led by Dr. Ziad Hafed of the Werner Reichardt Centre for...
View ArticleMicrocephaly discoveries made in non-Zika cases help explain abnormal brain...
Long before Zika virus made it a household word, the birth defect called microcephaly puzzled scientists and doctors—even as it changed the lives of the babies born with it during the pre-Zika era.
View ArticleA traditional Japanese art inspires a futuristic innovation: Brain 'organoids'
The ancient Japanese art of flower arranging was the inspiration for a groundbreaking technique to create tiny "artificial brains" that could be used to develop personalized cancer treatments.
View ArticleNew findings about stem cells in the brain of patients with epilepsy
Neural stem cells have been found in epileptic brain tissue—outside the regions of the brain where they normally reside. In a group of patients who underwent surgery for epilepsy, over half had stem...
View ArticleHow brain tissue recovers after injury
A research team led by Associate Professor Mitsuharu ENDO and Professor Yasuhiro MINAMI (both from the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe University) has...
View ArticleNeural stem cell therapies could eventually play a role in treating spinal...
Researchers in Qatar and Egypt, working with colleagues in Italy and the US, have found that injured spinal cords in rats show signs of tissue regeneration several weeks following injection with neural...
View ArticleThe rat race is over: New livestock model for stroke could speed discovery
It is well-known in the medical field that the pig brain shares certain physiological and anatomical similarities with the human brain. So similar are the two that researchers at the University of...
View ArticleBetter mini brains could help scientists identify treatments for Zika-related...
UCLA researchers have developed an improved technique for creating simplified human brain tissue from stem cells. Because these so-called "mini brain organoids" mimic human brains in how they grow and...
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