neurons tagged posts

Researchers have discovered that a single treatment to inhibit a gene called PTB in mice converts native astrocytes, brain support cells, into neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. As a result, the mice’s Parkinson’s disease symptoms disappear.

Xiang-Dong Fu, PhD, has never been more excited about something in his entire career. He has long studied the basic biology of RNA, a genetic cousin of DNA, and the proteins that bind it. But a single discovery has launched Fu into a completely new field: neuroscience.

For decades, Fu and his team at University of California San Diego School of Medicine studied a pr...

Erhan Genc investigates how intelligence is reflected in brain structures. Credit: RUB, Kramer

The more intelligent a person, the fewer connections there are between the neurons in his or her cerebral cortex. This is the result of a study conducted by neuroscientists working with Dr Erhan Genç and Christoph Fraenz at Ruhr-Universität Bochum; the study was performed using a specific neuroimaging technique that provides insights into the wiring of the brain on a microstructural level...

Schematic representation of PTBP1 protein structure. Each RNA recognition motif (RRM) has different binding affinity for pyrimidine-rich sequences on mRNA. The N-terminal domain encloses partially overlapping nuclear localisation (NLS) and export signals (NES). Blue boxes representing RRMs are not drawn to scale.

A small change in a protein PTBP1 can spur the creation of neurons that could have fuelled the evolution of mammalian brains to become the largest and most complex among vertebrates. Brain size and complexity vary enormously across vertebrates, but it is not clear how these differences came about. Humans and frogs, for example, have been evolving separately for 350 million years and have very different brain abilities...