Category Biology/Biotechnology

Researchers looking at blood samples identified two biological markers for the condition, hypersomnia.

Aerobic exercise can help alleviate excessive daytime sleepiness among depressed individuals. Researchers looking at blood samples identified two biological markers for the condition, called hypersomnia, which is characterized by sleeping too much at night as well as excessive daytime sleepiness, in those with Major Depressive Disorder.

“Hypersomnia, as well as insomnia, have been linked in the development, treatment, and recurrence of depression. Sleep disturbances are also some of the most persistent symptoms in depression...

Mice lacking a set of receptors in one type of neuron in the brain developed compulsive, anti-social behaviors. Parvalbumin-positive interneurons, thought to be important in general cognition and generating certain types of oscillatory wave patterns in the brain. “We found that without this receptor in the parvalbumin cells, mice have many serious behavioral deficits,” says Terrence Sejnowski, head of Salk’s Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, “And a lot of them really mimic closely what we see in schizophrenia.”

Scientists had previously discovered that when molecular signaling was disrupted in these cells during development, the brain’s networks didn’t form correctly...

PINK1 and parkin are key regulators of mitochondrial quality control. Credit: http://www.sciencedirect.com/…/pii/S0166223614000435

>> potential new pathway to treat ALS, other diseases. When mitochondia are damaged, they leak destructive molecules that can cause substantial harm and eventually kill brain cells. PINK1, a protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease is critical for helping cells get rid of dysfunctional mitochondria, by triggering an intricate process called mitophagy that breaks down and removes damaged mitochondria from the cell.

“PINK1 is a flag of damaged mitochondria,” said Richard Youle, Ph.D., the head of the Biochemistry Section of NINDS. “It identifies which mitochondria need to be eliminated to keep cells healthy...

Nanoparticles in the shape of cubes, octahedrons, and spheres coordinate with each other to build structures. The shapes are bound together by complementary DNA molecules on each type of particle. The structures of the resulting 3D crystals are determined by the spatial symmetry of the facets of the cubes and octahedrons, while their structural order depends on DNA-tuned interactions and the ratio of the nanoparticles’ sizes.

APPS: Directional binding for self-assembling materials made of different types of nanoparticles opens up opportunities to design unique materials that could benefit high-density energy storage devices and catalysis, among other applications.

The organization of spherical particles into lattices is typically driven by packing considerations...