Category Health/Medical

Copper, zinc superoxide dismutase is essential to life, but when damaged can become toxic. Credit: Photo courtesy of Oregon State University

OSU researchers have announced that they have essentially stopped the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, for nearly 2 years in one type of mouse model used to study the disease – allowing the mice to approach their normal lifespan. In decades of work, no treatment can do anything but prolong human survival less than a month in ALS. This mouse model is one that may more closely resemble the human reaction to this treatment, using copper-ATSM. Researchers are moving as quickly as possible toward human clinical trials, testing first for safety and then efficacy.

ALS is known to be caused by the death and deterior...

Correction of RPGR mutation in patient iPSC line.

CUMC and Uni of Iowa scientists have used CRISPR, to repair a genetic mutation responsible for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited condition that causes the retina to degrade and leads to blindness in at least 1.5 million cases worldwide. It marks the first time researchers have replaced a defective gene associated with a sensory disease in stem cells that were derived from a patient’s tissue.

“Our vision is to develop a personalized approach to treating eye disease,” says A/Prof Stephen Tsang, MD, PhD. “We still have some way to go, but we believe that the first therapeutic use of CRISPR will be to treat an eye disease. Here we have demonstrated that the initial steps are feasible...

Highlights •TMLHE controls the neural stem cell (NSC) pool in the embryonic mouse neocortex •CPT1A and fatty acid mobilization from lipid droplets regulate the NSC pool •TMLHE deficiencies lead to increased symmetric differentiating division of NSCs •NSC defects under TMLHE deficiencies can be rescued by exogenous carnitine

Besides folic acid, another prenatal supplement could protect against a certain type of autism, according to research: carnitine. It is required for transport of fatty acids into mitochondria – that converts these fats into energy...

Magnetic resonance images of the human brain. Researchers of the Jena University and the Jena University Hospital discovered that the visual processing of numbers takes place in both hemispheres of the brain. Credit: Jan-Peter Kasper/FSU

Researchers have located an important region for the visual processing of numbers in the human brain and showed that it is active in both hemispheres. The scientists published high resolution magnetic resonance recordings of this region. The human brain works with division of labour. Although our thinking organ excels in displaying amazing flexibility and plasticity, typically different areas of the brain take over different tasks.

While words and language are mainly being processed in the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere is responsible for numerical ...