Lifeboat Foundation

2019 will be the year in which we discover molecules and properties that are as yet unknown to humans. The breadth of biology and the enormous flexibility of genetic material will provide us with an ideal platform to explore an effectively unlimited number of molecules for novel materials and solutions. We will ultimately leave behind hydrocarbons and truly enter the biological age.

Joshua Hoffman is cofounder and CEO of Zymergen

– Meet the companies fixing depression by stimulating neurons.

In patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and tau protein tangles accumulate in the brain long before the appearance of clinical symptoms. Early intervention is critical for slowing neurodegeneration and disease progression. Therefore, reliable markers of early AD are needed. Lucey et al. analyzed sleep patterns in aging cognitively normal subjects and showed that non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep negatively correlated with tau pathology and Aβ deposition in several brain areas. The results show that alterations in NREM sleep may be an early indicator of AD pathology and suggest that noninvasive sleep analysis might be useful for monitoring patients at risk for developing AD.

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), deposition of insoluble amyloid-β (Aβ) is followed by intracellular aggregation of tau in the neocortex and subsequent neuronal cell loss, synaptic loss, brain atrophy, and cognitive impairment. By the time even the earliest clinical symptoms are detectable, Aβ accumulation is close to reaching its peak and neocortical tau pathology is frequently already present. The period in which AD pathology is accumulating in the absence of cognitive symptoms represents a clinically relevant time window for therapeutic intervention. Sleep is increasingly recognized as a potential marker for AD pathology and future risk of cognitive impairment. Previous studies in animal models and humans have associated decreased non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep slow wave activity (SWA) with Aβ deposition. In this study, we analyzed cognitive performance, brain imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarkers in participants enrolled in longitudinal studies of aging.

Dr. Ian Hale., my friend and occasional collaborator, is a renowned authority on autism and Asperger’s. He has spent a lifetime furthering our understanding of both.

Creating a research database to explore the autism spectrum and better understand neurodiversity. | Check out ‘Fund the Key to Autism’ on Indiegogo.

Today in the Mail’s pullout, the twins focus on anti-ageing your brain, and show you simple strategies to give it a boost — from telling you why you’re becoming forgetful to revealing the techniques you can use to improve brain health and function.

Yes, in the ‘spouse’ seat during counselling was Xand, his identical twin and fellow telly doctor.

It’s quite a revelation that these two — both contenders for the title of TV’s sexiest doctor, surely — have a relationship that might require them even to think of counselling.

Continue reading “Doctor double act can help you live healthier for longer in their anti-ageing series for the Mail” »

Some Parkinson’s disease patients with a specific genetic variant have widespread reduction of gray matter in dementia-related brain regions.

We’re all hallucinating all the time. When we agree about our hallucinations, we call it “reality.”

Watch the full TED Talk here: http://bit.ly/2LiHAXo

This new study, led by the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, used microscopic imaging to observe the detailed internal molecular clock timing of the astrocytes and neurons of the SCN. Surprisingly, this showed that although both types of cell have their own circadian clocks, they are differently regulated and were seen to be active at different times of the day. This delicate interplay was found to be critical in keeping the entire SCN clockwork ticking.

A new study has found that astrocytes, previously thought of as just supporting neurons in regulating circadian rhythms, can actually lead the tempo of the body’s internal clock and have been shown for the first time to be able to control patterns of daily behavior in mammals.

By Helen Thomson

Old age may have its downsides, but losing the ability to grow new brain cells isn’t one: healthy people in their seventies seem to produce just as many new neurons as teenagers.

The discovery overturns a decades-old theory about how our brains age and could provide clues as to how we can keep our minds sharper for longer.

Continue reading “Old people can produce as many new brain cells as teenagers” »

Neuroscientists have used a classic branch of maths in a totally new way to peer into the structure of our brains. What they’ve discovered is that the brain is full of multi-dimensional geometrical structures operating in as many as 11 dimensions.

We’re used to thinking of the world from a 3D perspective, so this may sound a bit tricky, but the results of this new study could be the next major step in understanding the fabric of the human brain – the most complex structure we know of.

This latest brain model was produced by a team of researchers from the Blue Brain Project, a Swiss research initiative devoted to building a supercomputer-powered reconstruction of the human brain.

Continue reading “Scientists Discover That Our Brains Can Process the World in 11 Dimensions” »