Neurosurgery in Biological News

Limping rat provides sciatica insights

... nerve that pass through openings in the spine to the spinal cord. Surgical simulation of nerve compression in rats was led by Mohammed Shamji, a neurosurgery resident and recent Ph.D. graduate working in the laboratory of senior researcher Lori Setton, professor of biomedical engineering and surgery at ...

Epstein-Barr virus may be associated with progression of MS

... Jacobs Neurological Institute (JNI) and first author on the study. The research appears in the Online First section of the Journal of Neurology, neurosurgery and Psychiatry and is available at http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf/jnnp.2008.154906v1 . "A growing body of experimental evidence indicates ...

NJIT to host major biomedical engineering showcase and career fair

... collaborations." Keynote presentations will address university research in neuro-engineering and panels will discuss clinical perspectives in neurosurgery and imaging and funding for translational research. There will be a breakout session focused on student career issues such as the hiring process and ...

Cytori reports benefit of adipose-derived regenerative cells in spinal disc model

... the regeneration of the spinal disc and form a healthier, more natural inner-disc space than HA alone," said Jrg Meisel, M.D., Ph.D., the Director of neurosurgery at the Bergmannstrost Klinik in Germany." In addition, in this preclinical study at 12 months post therapy, injured discs that were treated with ...

Yale researchers unravel mystery of brain aneurysms

... worldwide each year and nearly killed Vice President-elect Joseph Biden two decades ago. An international team led by Murat Gunel, professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology, and Richard Lifton, Sterling Professor and chair of genetics, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator scanned the ...

Antimicrobial sutures reduce infections in brain shunt surgery, study finds

... group. "Many techniques and devices have been investigated to reduce shunt infection rates," said Curtis J. Rozzelle, M.D., assistant professor of neurosurgery in UB's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and first author on the paper. He also is surgical director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program ...

Scientists learn how food affects the brain

... and ward off mental disorders. "Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain," said Fernando Gmez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science who has spent years studying the effects of food, exercise and sleep on the brain. "Diet, exercise and sleep have the ...

Following traumatic brain injury, balanced nutrition saves lives

... injury, but our findings suggest that this is simply not soon enough." The study's findings are published in this month's issue of the Journal of neurosurgery . This is the largest study to ever look at the issue of nutrition and survival following TBI. The research team followed survival outcome and ...

Study identifies brain pathway that shuts down seizures

... that don't stop, it will take more work to turn the finding into a new therapeutic approach. We will be working with colleagues in neurology and neurosurgery to try and translate the findings to treatments." Ziemann noted that a particular strength of neuroscience research at the UI is the close ...

ASNTR awards go to Parkinson's Disease research and patient advocate at May meeting

... the forefront of novel approaches to understanding Parkinsons disease and its potential therapies, said Gene Redmond, MD, professor of psychiatry and neurosurgery of the Yale School of Medicine and past president of ASNTR. Joan Samuelson, JD recognized with Sanberg Lifetime Achievement Award ASNTR ...

Children's Hospital neurosurgeon receives grant

... Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMCs Chief of the Division of Pediatric neurosurgery Ian F. Pollack, MD, has received a grant from the Childrens Brain Tumor Foundation for his pioneering work in the field of neuro-oncology. Awarded ...

Life-threatening gene defect located by UT-Houston researchers

... in discovering gene defects that can cause vascular abnormalities, said study co-author Dong Kim, M.D., chairman of the medical schools Department of neurosurgery and co-director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann. This recent finding has enormous implications for diseases affecting blood ...

New brain cells listen before they talk

... allows the brain cells to talk to each otherdo not appear until 21 days after the birth of the new cells, according to Charles Greer, professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology, and senior author of the study, In the meantime, other areas of the brain provide information to the new cells, preventing them ...

Slow brain waves play key role in coordinating complex activity

... teamed up with UCSF doctors Nick Barbaro, neurosurgeon, professor of neurosurgery and director of surgical epilepsy; Mitchel Berger, neurosurgeon, professor and chair of neurosurgery and director of the Brain Tumor Research Center; and Heidi Kirsch, ...

Neurologix announces positive results of gene therapy clinical trial in Parkinson's disease

... G. Kaplitt, M.D., Ph.D., the Tara and Victor Menezes Clinical Scholar in neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and Director of Stereotactic and Functional neurosurgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, and Dr. Matthew J. During, ...

Researchers use MRI to predict recovery after spinal cord injury

... within 48 hours after injury by rigorous assessment of MR images," said co-author Michael G. Fehlings, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.C.S.C., professor of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and medical director at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. "In addition," Dr. Fehlings said, ...

Mice with a migraine show signs of brain damage

... minimize potential damage,?said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., Ph.D., the neuroscientist who led the research team. She is a professor in the Department of neurosurgery and a member of the Center for Aging and Developmental Biology and worked closely with Takahiro Takano, Ph.D., research assistant professor, who is ...

UCSF brain tumor vaccine trial shows promising results

... metastatic melanoma (skin cancer) and renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). Reviewing the presentation at AANS, Henry Brem, MD, director of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, noted, “This is an encouraging study of a therapeutic cancer vaccine that targets multiple tumor antigens, ...

Conceptualizing a cyborg

... "We're at a junction now of developing a new approach for a brain-machine interface," says senior author Douglas H. Smith, MD, Professor of neurosurgery and Director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at Penn. "The nervous system will certainly rebel if you place hard or sharp electrodes into ...

New fMRI technology making brain tumor surgery safer

... specialist (neuroradiologist) with UC Radiology and The Neuroscience Institute. “It has significantly affected how neurosurgeons plan to do neurosurgery and how much tumor they can remove while still avoiding critical areas of brain function.? Said Christopher McPherson, M.D., a neurosurgeon with ...

Natural protein stops deadly human brain cancer in mice

... that BMPs could stop glioblastoma by depleting the stem-cell-like population that feeds it," says Henry Brem, M.D., chairman of the Department of neurosurgery at Hopkins and a collaborator in the study. "This opens exciting doors to future research into treatments and therapies for such a devastating ...

Newly identified biomarker detects and regulates spread of brain tumors

... identified for the first time that attractin levels are elevated in patients with high-grade astrocytoma," says Erwin Van Meir, PhD, professor of neurosurgery and hematology/oncology and lead author of the study. "Because few noninvasive methods are available for monitoring CNS malignancies, there is an ...

New engineered drug may offer prolonged arthritis relief

... antagonist drug, which is known to block IL-1 activity, might have value in diminishing the severity of osteoarthritis, said Mohammed Shamji, a neurosurgery resident pursuing his Ph.D. in Setton's laboratory. However, trials of IL1RA for osteoarthritis have had limited success, primarily because the ...

Stem cell activity deciphered in the aging brain

... and depression, by stimulating the brain's ability to produce new nerve cells, said senior study investigator Ashok K. Shetty, Ph.D., professor of neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center and medical research scientist at Durham VA Medical Center. Results of the study appear online in the journal ...

Cancer stem cells linked to radiation resistance

... of normally functioning nerve stem cells, Rich said. In the current study, the researchers used glioblastoma tissue removed from patients during neurosurgery and created two separate models. For one model, the researchers extracted cells from the tissue and grew them in cultures in the laboratory. For the ...

Computer-based 'games' enhance mental function in patients with Alzheimer's

... Aplicades in Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, are published in the October issue of the Journal of Neurology, neurosurgery and Psychiatry. "The interactive multimedia internet-based system, in combination with the standard pharmacological treatment of Alzheimer's ...

Targeted virus compels cancer cells to eat themselves

... called autophagy -- to reduce tumor size and extend survival, says senior author Seiji Kondo, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of neurosurgery at M. D. Anderson. ''This virus uses telomerase, an enzyme found in 80 percent of brain tumors, as a target,'' Kondo says. ''Once the virus enters ...

Stem cells found in adult skin can be transplanted and function in mouse models of disease

... as predicted in animals," said Dr. Rajiv Midha, study author, a scientist at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute as well as chairman of the Division of neurosurgery and professor and deputy head in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary. "This is the first time SKPs have been ...

Flick of whiskers helps tease out brain's 'shadow' signaling system

... and is now available online. "Now people have to take astrocytes seriously," said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Department of neurosurgery and a member of the Center for Aging and Developmental Biology, whose team did the research. In the past few years she has found that the cells, long ...

Internal body clock dictates timing of different types of stroke

... circadian rhythm, seems to influence the timing of different types of stroke, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The research team analysed data from almost 13,000 patients who had had one of three types of stroke for the first time, diagnosed ...

Blood flow in brain takes a twist, affecting views of Alzheimer's

... sophisticated brain imaging techniques such as PET scans and functional MRI scans. Now the group led by Nedergaard, professor in the Department of neurosurgery and a member of the Center for Aging and Developmental Biology, and post-doctoral associate Takahiro Takano, Ph.D., the first author of the paper, ...

Researchers identify new cord blood stem cell

... into how stem cells can restore function in the brain after injury," said Walter Low, Ph.D., senior investigator of the study, and professor of neurosurgery and the Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota. This research was published in the latest issue of the journal Stem Cells and ...

Clinical trial to test stem cell approach for children with brain injury

... treatment, the first ever with potential to repair a traumatically damaged brain," said James Baumgartner, M.D., associate professor of pediatric neurosurgery and co-principal investigator on the project. As a Phase I clinical trial, the project's first emphasis is to establish the safety of the ...