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UCSF scientists have received two grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to refine their human embryonic stem cell-based strategies for treating neurological diseases and liver failure.
UCSF Nobel laureate Stanley B. Prusiner, professor of neurology and director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, today (Oct. 15, 2010) was named to receive the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor for science and technology.
Synuclein is a protein that can cause Parkinson’s disease, although it is not clear how. UCSF researcher Robert Edwards, MD, now has discovered that synuclein can affect signal transmission between nerve cells long before disease symptoms arise.
An inexpensive, hundred-year-old therapy for pain – aspirin – is effective in high doses for the treatment of severe headache and migraine caused by drug withdrawal, according to a new study by researchers with the UCSF Headache Center.
UCSF is co-sponsoring a symposium on September 27 and 28 to provide scientists and physicians with the “nuts and bolts” of translating stem cell science into cell-based products for clinical trials.
In neurodegenerative diseases, clumps of insoluble proteins appear in patients’ brains. These aggregates contain proteins that are unique to each disease, such as amyloid beta in Alzheimer’s disease, but they are intertwined with small amounts of many other insoluble proteins that are normally present in a soluble form in healthy young individuals.
Scientists at the MAC hope to gain a greater understanding of the creative brain by studying patients who are now making wonderful works of art in the face of their illnesses.
Specialized brain training targeted at the regions of a rat’s brain that process sound reversed many aspects of normal, age-related cognitive decline and improved the health of the brain cells, according to a new study from researchers at UCSF.
A commercial brain fitness program has been shown to improve memory in older adults, at least in the period soon after training. The findings are the first to show that practicing simple visual tasks can improve the accuracy of short-term, or “working” visual memory.
The Veterans Health Research Institute or NCIRE will present “The Brain at War: Neurocognitive Consequences of Combat” today (June 17).