Characterization of B cells in spleen and CNS of mice lacking functional Ly6G+ MDSCs during recovery from EAE.

B cells are important in helping the immune system fight pathogens. However, in the case of the neurological autoimmune disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS) they can damage nerve tissue. When particular control cells are missing, too many B cells accumulate in the meninges, resulting in inflammation of the central nervous system. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) demonstrated the process using animal and patient samples.

The fight against illnesses and pathogens requires activation or deactivation of a large number of different cell types in our immune system at the right place and the right time...

Dr Domenico Vicinanza of Anglia Ruskin University and Dr Genevieve Williams have used data sonification techniques to make an audio track of the 5,000th Mars Sunrise captured by the Mars rover Opportunity.

Academics transform photo of landmark Mars sunrise into a piece of music. Scientists have created the soundtrack of the 5,000th Mars sunrise captured by the robotic exploration rover, Opportunity, using data sonification techniques to create a two-minute piece of music. Researchers created the piece of music (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loXhsglsG-w) by scanning a picture from left to right, pixel by pixel, and looking at brightness and colour information and combining them with terrain elevation. They used algorithms to assign each element a specific pitch and melody...

The Purdue University glaucoma drainage device is built with microactuators that vibrate when a magnetic field is introduced. (Image provided by Hyowon Lee)

Smart drainage device may help patients with glaucoma save their eyesight. Purdue University researchers have invented a new smart drainage device to help patients with glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the world, as they try to save their eyesight. Glaucoma can be treated only with medications or surgical implants, both of which offer varying degrees of success in helping to improve sight and to relieve pressure buildup inside the eye. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 3 million Americans have glaucoma.

Implantable glaucoma drainage devices have grown in popularity over the past years, but only hal...

Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability in the world.
Credit: © Kittiphan / Fotolia

For the first time, researchers at the UNC School of Medicine showed they could target one brain region with a weak alternating current of electricity, enhance the naturally occurring brain rhythms of that region, and significantly decrease symptoms associated with chronic lower back pain.

The results, published in the Journal of Pain and presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego this week, suggest that doctors could one day target parts of the brain with new noninvasive treatment strategies, such as transcranial alternating current stimulation, or tACS, which researchers used in this study to boost the naturally occurring brain waves they theorized were important for the tre...