The majority of cells in the human brain are not nerve cells but star-shaped glia cells, the so called ?astroglia?. ?Glia means ?glue?, explains G?tz. ?As befits their name, until now these cells have been regarded merely as a kind of ?putty? keeping the nerve cells together.
A team of researchers from Emory and Georgia State Universities has been awarded a four-year, nearly $850,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to study risk factors for long-term social and cognitive problems in adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors.
The evidence is accumulating on how bad stress is for health. Chronic stress can intensify inflammation and increase a person?s risk for developing central nervous system infections, neurodegenerative diseases, like multiple sclerosis (MS), and other inflammatory diseases, say researchers presenting at the 115th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA).
A new drug for people who keep waking at night or wake up early and can’t go back to sleep is being investigated by medical researchers.
Clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord should be delayed for three minutes after birth, particularly for pre-term infants, suggests a senior doctor in this week?s BMJ.
Most head-and-neck cancers that recur locally after prior full-dose conventional radiation therapy respond to Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). These results were obtained in a Phase I/II study at the Helsinki University Hospital, Finland.
Eleven more cases of West Nile virus have been reported to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) this week, bringing the total cases reported this year to 27.
Recent toy recalls may leave you wondering about your child’s exposure to lead. Read on to get the facts from Children’s Hospital Boston’s Michael Shannon, MD, MPH, an emergency physician, toxicologist and co-director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Center at Children’s Hospital Boston and Alan Woolf, MD, MPH, a pediatrician, toxicologist, co-director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Center and director of the Environmental Medicine Program at Children’s Hospital Boston.
Scientists have discovered a key protein in the toxic brain pathway that leads to fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome, an inherited neurodegenerative disorder. The finding, in a Drosophila (fly) model of FXTAS, could help unravel the complex mechanisms of FXTAS and lead scientists to develop therapies to target the protein.
Scientists have discovered a new protein that may offer fresh insights into brain function in mad cow disease. ?Our team has defined a second prion protein called ?Shadoo?, that exists in addition to the well-known prion protein called ?PrP? ? said Professor David Westaway, director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta.