Category Biology/Biotechnology

University of Illinois research scientist Ryan Larsen and graduate student Aki Nikolaidis found a link between brain metabolism and fluid intelligence. Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

A healthy brain is critical to a person’s cognitive abilities, but measuring brain health can be a complicated endeavor. A new study by University of Illinois researchers reports that healthy brain metabolism corresponds with fluid intelligence – a measure of one’s ability to solve unusual or complex problems – in young adults.

“Fluid intelligence is one of the most useful cognitive measures available,” said U. of I. Ph.D. candidate Aki Nikolaidis. “This domain relates to an individual’s job satisfaction and salary level, among other real-world outcomes,” he said...

CRISPR/Cas9 eliminates HIV-1 expression in PMA/TSA treated, latently-infected human T-cell line.

A CRISPR/Cas9 gene gene editing system designed by scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University is paving the way to an eventual cure for patients infected with HIV. The researchers show they can both effectively and safely eliminate the virus from the DNA of human cells grown in culture.

According to Kamel Khalili, PhD, Prof Laura H. Carnell, “Antiretroviral drugs are very good at controlling HIV infection. But patients on antiretroviral therapy who stop taking the drugs suffer a rapid rebound in HIV replication.” The presence of numerous copies of HIV weakens the immune system and eventually causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

Curing HIV/AIDS – which h...

This is a confocal micrograph taken from the lesion core after a spinal cord injury. Nuclear EdU (red) shows the presence of newly differentiated cells which produce Schwann cell myelin (P0, green). These peripheral-like Schwann cells remyelinate central axons in the injured spinal cord and are important for spontaneous repair and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Credit: King’s College London

Researchers have identified a molecular signal, known as ‘neuregulin-1’, which drives and enables the spinal cord’s natural capacity for repair after injury. The findings could one day lead to new treatments which enhance this spontaneous repair mechanism by manipulating the neuregulin-1 signal.

Every year >130,000 people suffer traumatic spinal cord injury and related healthcare costs ar...

A canine retina with xlpra2 shows how a marker of cell division (red) and rod cells (green) colocalize. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Pennsylvania

In a new study, researchers have shown retinal cells in 3 distinct forms of canine early-onset blindness possess an unexpected feature: they temporarily rejuvenate. Further investigation into the reasons for this period of retinal neuron proliferation could lead to molecular targets for intervening in cell death and maintaining functional photoreceptor cells and a working retina.

The findings suggest this feature may be common across many forms of inherited blindness. The study picked up where 2011 work left off...