Category Biology/Biotechnology

Images collected using an SRS microscope show that normal brain contains sparse cells with bundles of nerve fibers, called axons (left), but brain tumor tissue is full of cells in a disordered pattern (right). While you can see the difference on a microscopic scale, during surgery they’d be difficult to differentiate, making it hard for a surgeon to know where the tumor stops. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan Health System

New tech gives brain surgeons real-time microscopic vision of tumors, potentially allowing the surgical decision-making process to become data driven, instead of subjective “best guesses,”. Even the state-of-the-art imaging equipment in today’s OR still doesn’t make the process much easier...

Brain scans (stock image). Credit: © nimon_t / Fotolia

Is brain size related to cognitive ability of humans? This question has captured the attention of scientists for more than a century. An international team of researchers provides no evidence for a causal role of brain size for IQ test performance. In a meta-analysis of data from more than 8000 participants, they show that associations between in vivo brain volume and IQ are small. This association appeared to be independent of participant sex and age.

“The presently observed association means that brain volume plays only a minor role in explaining IQ test performance in humans. Although a certain association is observable, brain volume appears to be of only little practical relevance...

Highlights •MYSM1 inhibits PRR pathways for pro-inflammatory and type I IFN gene induction •MYSM1 transiently accumulates in the cytoplasm upon microbial challenge •MYSM1 interacts with and inactivates TRAF3 and TRAF6 via its SWIRM and MPN domains •MYSM1 protects against sepsis but renders mice more susceptible to viral infection

Our immune system is vital to us and can sometimes overreact causing chronic illnesses, such as for instance rheumatism and allergy. Now, researchers have identified a molecular switch – MYSM1 – that can suppress such an overreaction and avoid inflammation.

“The discovery of MYSM1 is a major milestone in our understanding of how our immune system works, and how its response could be controlled in order to prevent inflammatory diseases such as sepsis,” ...

New OCT tool to study how diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s, and brain tumors change brain tissue over time. “In the brain, the imaging depth is almost doubled,” said Martin Leahy of the National University of Ireland, Galway. “The authors demonstrate for the first time an application in which this capability opens up a whole new window into the live intact hippocampus, for discovery in brain research.”

From the experimental findings, the authors envision that this new optical coherence tomography (OCT) approach to brain study may enable examination of acute and chronic morphological or functional vascular changes in the deep brain, which has been rarely attempted before in the OCT community.

Choi and Wang used swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) powered by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting...