The ability to recognize faces is largely determined by your genes, according to new research at UCL (University College London). Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists found that identical twins were twice as similar to each other in terms of their ability to recognize faces, compared to non-identical twins. […]
Examining brain tissue from over 500 individuals in 11 countries, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues found a new risk factor for the second-most-common cause of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. “Using a genome-wide scan for genetic variation in post-mortem brain tissue, we were […]
For the first time, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that three different degenerative brain disorders are linked by a toxic form of the same protein. The protein, called Elk-1, was found in clumps of misshaped proteins that are the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. (continue […]
Understanding how aged and damaged mother cells manage to form new and undamaged daughter cells is one of the toughest riddles of ageing, but scientists now know how yeast cells do it. In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, show how the daughter cell uses a mechanical “conveyor belt” to dump […]
Scientists have identified a gene they say is a strong candidate for involvement in premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and other maladies associated with the natural flux in hormones during the menstrual cycle. In a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rockefeller University researchers detail experiments in mice showing that […]
Researchers, for the first time, have pinpointed a genetic hotspot that confers risk for both bipolar disorder and depression. People with either of these mood disorders were significantly more likely to have risk versions of genes at this site than healthy controls. One of the genes, which codes for part of a cell’s machinery that […]
New research shows that migraine and depression may share a strong genetic component. The research is published in the January 13, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Understanding the genetic factors that contribute to these disabling disorders could one day lead to better strategies to manage the […]
Autism research continues to emerge at a steady pace. “A new, integrated interpretation of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)” was recently reported. Now, researchers have found a potential biomarker for Autism as, for the first time, inherited disruption of gene expression in a brain system for social behavior has been implicated in autism. National Institute of […]
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