RESEARCH NEWS 2004-02-07 Research News The analogy of a computer has often been used to explain the workings of the brain, and vice versa. In computers, however, each byte has a unique address that allows the processor to track where it stored snippets of information. The brain,
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-02-05 Research News One bit of reassuring evidence tempered the dismay over the encephalitis cases that ended dosing in the phase 2 trial of an Aβ vaccine: At least the vaccine removed the plaques. Not so fast, write Haruhiko Akiyama of the Tokyo Institute of P
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-02-05 Research News Two papers in tomorrow's Science describe genetic maps that may prove useful for studying the genetic basis for human disease. A team of Canadian scientists led by Charles Boone at the University of Toronto report that they have constru
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-02-04 Research News Activators of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ), which sensitize tissues to insulin, are widely used to treat type II diabetes. The realization that these drugs also reduce inflammation (see recent Live Discussion on PPARγ
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-30 Research News If you want to make sure to remember something, sleep on it. Sleep research confirms this adage, and indeed, its chemical underpinnings may have surprising implications for Alzheimer’s disease treatment. Neurons communicate with one another
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-30 Research News Elderly men with symptoms of ataxia and intention tremor may actually have a disorder related to fragile X syndrome, a common form of mental retardation in children. These men show signs of Parkinson's disease or dementia and are someti
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-30 Research News Alzheimer's researchers sneak regular peeks over the shoulders of colleagues working on Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Why not do the same with schizophrenia researchers, who are working in a disease that feature
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-30 Research News Which is more dangerous, the cellular (PrPc) or the infectious (PrPSc) prion protein? Until recently, this would have been easy to answer. But evidence is growing that the cellular variant may be just as toxic as the infectious one. In today
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-26 Research News A nifty instrument for mapping the 3-D shape of macromolecular surfaces, the atomic force microscope (AFM) over the last five years has become an established method of measuring how environmental conditions affect Aβ fibril formation as well
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-23 Research News Cholesterol and lipoproteins, particularly ApoE, are two known risk factors for idiopathic Alzheimer’s disease. But despite numerous reports, scientists’ understanding of how they influence the disease process remains vague, in part because
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-23 Research News Going against the grain is never easy, and in science, especially, if you are proposing a rival model, you had better have strong evidence to support it. A paper appearing in this week’s early online PNAS rekindles the debate concerning the
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-22 Research News Combining memantine with an older, widely used AD drug further improves measures of cognition, global well-being, activities of daily living, and behavior in people with moderate to severe AD, according to a study published in the January 21
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-22 Research News What if all it took was a little sugar—not to make some other medicine go down, but as a therapy in itself for Huntington's disease? This is the promise of an article published online January 18 in Nature Medicine. Nobuyuki Nukina and h
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-21 Research News For several years now, the Alzheimer's research and treatment communities have been awaiting the fruition of promising research into quantitative imaging agents that could signal the presence of amyloid in the brains of living people (s
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-01-18 Research News What exactly distinguishes an old cell from a new one? Telomeres may be shorter, but for the most part, the genome hasn't changed. The cell’s collective protein supply, or proteome, is another matter, however. Anyone interested in study