Talk about changing everything that we thought about the brain and learning.
A new study from the University of Toulouse found that intelligence and learning aren’t limited to organisms with brains. By studying the mold Physarum polycephalum they found it can, over time, learn to navigate even irritating environments.
We definitely need precision medicine. If you don’t believe it is worth that; then I have a few widows & widowers who you should speak to; I have parents that you should speak with; I have a list of sisters & brothers that you should speak with; and I have many many friends (including me) that you should speak with about how we miss those we love because things like precision medicine wasn’t available and could have saved their lives.
Precision medicine is the theme for the 10th annual symposium of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Nano Biotechnology, Friday, April 29, 2016 at 9 a.m. in the Owens Auditorium at the School of Medicine. This year’s event is cohosted by Johns Hopkins Individualized Health Initiative (also known as Hopkins in Health) and features several in Health affiliated speakers.
By developing treatments that overcome the limitations of the one-size-fits-all mindset, precision medicine will more effectively prevent and thwart disease. Driven by data provided from sources such as electronic medical records, public health investigations, clinical studies, and from patients themselves through new point-of-care assays, wearable sensors and smartphone apps, precision medicine will become the gold standard of care in the not-so-distant future. Before long, we will be able to treat and also prevent diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and cancer with regimes that are tailor-made for the individual.
Hopkins in Health is a signature initiative of Johns Hopkins University’s $4.5 billion Rising to the Challenge campaign is a collaboration among three institutions: the University, the Johns Hopkins Health System, and the Applied Physics Laboratory. These in Health researchers combine clinical, genetic, lifestyle, and other data sources to create innovative tools intended to improve decision-making in the prevention and treatment of a range of conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and infectious disease. The goal is to “provide the right care to the right person at the right time.”
The longer you gaze at this depiction of the hidden architecture of the universe, the more you can’t help but notice how similar it looks to neurons communicating with each other in the human brain.
3D interactive visualization lets users explore the vast, hidden structure of the universe.
By Amanda Montañez on April 14, 2016.
BOSTON: In an intriguing approach to the fight against cancer, researchers for the first time have used light to prevent and reverse tumors using a technique called optogenetics to manipulate electrical signaling in cells.
Scientists at Tufts University performed optogenetics experiments on frogs, often used in basic research into cancer because of the biological similarities in their tumors to those in mammals, to test whether this method already used in brain and nervous system research could be applied to cancer.
“We call this whole research program cracking the bioelectric code,” said biologist Michael Levin, who heads the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology.
Hmmm; I do know for many there is a set of genetic mutations that seem to sit dormat and eventually triggered by environment conditions.
(Reuters Health) — The risk of some childhood cancers might vary depending on where a child’s mother was born, a new study suggests.
For example, some brain and kidney cancers occurred less often in children whose Hispanic mothers were born outside the U.S. than in youngsters whose Hispanic or white mothers were born in the U.S., researchers found.
However, the Hispanic children had a higher risk of certain blood cancers regardless of where their mothers were born.
University of Leicester. (2016, April 25). Researchers shed light on the role of inositol phosphate molecules in gene regulatory complexes. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160425112511.htm
Very eye opening: North America has the largest market for silent cancer therapeutic, followed by Europe.
Silent cancer refers to those types of cancer which are undiagnosed in early stages. This is due to asymptomatic nature of the disease which makes it difficult to identify the disease till it progresses to advanced stages. Major silent types of cancer include brain, cervix, esophagus, mouth and larynx, ovarian, pancreatic, kidney, and liver cancer. Some silent types of cancer such as ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, and pancreatic cancer show symptoms in their early stages. Ovarian cancer occurs in epithelium or lining cells of the ovary. Major signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer include pain or cramps in the belly, nausea, abnormal vaginal bleeding, and bloating. Pancreatic cancer is one of the fastest growing types of cancer worldwide. Esophagus cancer is more common among the older population, compared to adults. This cancer is mainly treated by chemotherapy, surgery, and radiosurgery. Moreover, physicians also use combination therapy for the treatment of silent cancer. For instance, the combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy is very effective in the treatment of silent cancer.
The global silent cancer therapeutic market is categorized based on type, and mode of treatment. Based on type, the report covers tumors, brain, mouth and larynx, esophagus, liver, renal, pancreatic, cervix, and ovarian cancer. Based on mode of treatment, the report covers chemotherapy, targeted therapy, pharmaceutical drugs, surgery, and radiotherapy.
North America has the largest market for silent cancer therapeutic, followed by Europe. This is due to technological advancements in cancer treatment devices, increasing prevalence of cancer, rise in aging population and improved healthcare infrastructure in the region. The silent cancer therapeutic market in Asia is expected to experience high growth rate over the next few years. This is due to evolving R&D activities in the field of cancer, increasing government support for research, rise in number of cancer patients, growing awareness about various types of silent cancer, increasing elderly population and developing healthcare infrastructure in the region. Moreover, growing demographics and economies in developing countries such as India and China are expected to drive the silent cancer therapeutics market in Asia.
New project underway to find answers.
The Allen Institute for Brain Science has announced major updates to its online resources available at “brain-map.org” brain-map.org, including a new resource on Aging, Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in collaboration with UW Medicine researchers at the University of Washington, and Group Health. The resource is the first of its kind to collect and share a wide variety of data modalities on a large sample of aged brains, complete with mental health histories and clinical diagnoses.
“The power of this resource is its ability to look across such a large number of brains, as well as a large number of data types,” says Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “The resource combines traditional neuropathology with modern ‘omics’ approaches to enable researchers to understand the process of aging, look for molecular signatures of disease and identify hallmarks of brain injury.”
The study samples come from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, a longitudinal research effort led by Dr. Eric B. Larson and Dr. Paul K. Crane of the Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington to collect data on thousands of aging adults, including detailed information on their health histories and cognitive abilities. UW Medicine led efforts to collect post-mortem samples from 107 brains aged 79 to 102, with tissue collected from the parietal cortex, temporal cortex, hippocampus and cortical white matter.
