Category Archives: Neuroscience

BMP5/7 protein offers promising therapeutics that could halt the progression of Parkinson’s disease – News-Medical.Net

January 24, 2021 medical

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers have discovered that the protein BMP5/7 offers promising therapeutics that could slow down or halt the progression of Parkinson's disease.

The findings were published in the prestigious clinical neurology journal, Brain.

Parkinson's disease, which affects over one million people in U.S. and 10 million worldwide, causes tremors and severe movement impairment due to progressive degeneration of dopamine-producing brain cells. It is believed that the protein "alpha-synuclein," present in all human brains, misfolds and forms toxic clumps in these cells, which causes the disease.

While current Parkinson's disease therapies improve symptoms, they are not effective in advanced illness stages and, unfortunately, do not slow or cure the disease.

Dr. Claude Brodski, M.D., head of the BGU's Laboratory for Molecular Neuroscience, discovered that BMP5/7 signaling in neurons was significantly reduced in dopamine-producing brain cells, which could contribute to Parkinson's disease advancement.

Indeed, we found that BMP5/7 treatment can, in a Parkinson's disease mouse model, efficiently prevent movement impairments caused by the accumulation of alpha-synuclein and reverse the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. These findings are very promising, since they suggest that BMP5/7 could slow or stop Parkinson's disease progression. Currently, we are focusing all our efforts on bringing our discovery closer to clinical application."

Dr Claude Brodski, M.D, Head of Laboratory for Molecular Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

BGN Technologies, Ben-Gurion University's technology transfer company, has filed several patent applications covering this breakthrough discovery.

Dr. Galit Mazooz Perlmuter, senior vice president of business development, bio-pharma at BGN Technologies, notes, "There is a vast need for new therapies to treat Parkinson's disease, especially in advanced stages of the disease. Dr. Brodski's findings, although still in their early stages, offer a disease-modified drug target that will address this devastating condition. We are now seeking an industry partner for further development of this patent pending invention."

Source:

Journal reference:

Vitic, Z., et al. (2020) BMP5/7 protect dopaminergic neurons in an -synuclein mouse model of Parkinsons disease. Brain. doi.org/10.1093/brain/awaa368.

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BMP5/7 protein offers promising therapeutics that could halt the progression of Parkinson's disease - News-Medical.Net

Neuroscience

Neuroscience team wins grant to explore cognitive flexibility – AroundtheO

January 22, 2021 medical

Using a $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a team of researchers in the UOs Institute of Neuroscience hopes to better understand the neural mechanisms behind the ability to shift attention among differing tasks.

Imagine an athlete or a musician or a student trying to focus on the task at hand, while ignoring the things going on around them and then suddenly switching their attention to something else, said David McCormick, Presidential Chair and director of the Institute of Neuroscience. This is something that we all use and depend on in our real lives. You dont realize how important it is until it malfunctions.

McCormick is a co-principal investigator on the five-year NIH grant to explore the phenomenon of cognitive flexibility. Funded through the BRAIN Initiative, the Obama-era program that aims to revolutionize the understanding of the human brain, the project involves neuroscientists from six UO research labs. Together, they will employ advanced research tools and techniques to shed light on how neural pathways enable behavioral flexibility.

It's kind of the culmination of a lot of different things that we've each worked on separately, and now its a matter of putting it all together into answering these questions, said Cris Niell, professor of biology and co-principal investigator on the grant. Together were studying vision and we're studying hearing. We're doing everything from watching the activity of hundreds to tens of thousands of neurons, either with advanced optics or the latest in electrical recording techniques. This massive amount of interesting and important data also requires advanced computational tools that tie it all together.

Along with McCormick and Niell, the team includes biology professor Santiago Jaramillo, psychology professors Michael Wehr and Matt Smear, and Luca Mazzucato, a professor in the Departments of Biology and Mathematics, all members of the Institute of Neuroscience.

The team will begin by training mice in a series of tasks. They will observe changes in attention brought about by different sensory prompts, so a mouse focused on a visual task may be cued, through the presentation of a smell, to quickly change its focus to sounds while ignoring visual stimuli. Niells expertise in visual processes will meet with Jaramillos research on auditory coding, Wehrs interest in the auditory cortex and Smears focus on olfactory function.

While mice are performing their tasks, the team will use advanced techniques such as wide-field imaging, which will enable them to view a large portion of the surface of the mices brains. Recording tens of thousands of blinking neurons generates tremendous amounts of data, which is where computational neuroscientist Mazzucato comes in. To help sift through the mountain of information, he will use methods from statistical physics, information theory, machine learning and other areas of expertise.

The project builds on McCormicks research examining how a state of attention can modulate the function of the brain and Niells research showing how physical activity can enhance visual processing in mice. Niell and McCormick have previously explored similar questions about the behavioral state of animals and how their activity affects brain processing. Additionally, the project dovetails with Jaramillos research on neuronal circuits involved in behavioral flexibility and attention.

McCormick, who came to the UO in 2017 from Yale University, said the project is just the kind of collaborative research challenge that attracted him to Oregon in the first place. Tackling such a large-scale project required tapping into the full depth of expertise and equipment available in the Institute of Neuroscience.

There are only a couple of other places in the world that have the number of people and skill sets and a critical mass like we do for this particular type of research, McCormick said.

One of the questions the team hopes to answer is what specific processes are driving the attentional shifts in mice. There is some evidence that the systems that regulate behavioral and brain arousal or other activities may be involved, and the team will examine the role that acetylcholine, norepinephrine and other neurotransmitters play. In the later stages of the project they will shift from observing and gathering data to manipulating the mechanisms in mice using techniques such as optogenetics, which allows researchers to monitor and control the activity of brain cells with light signals.

Any kind of fundamental information the team can gain about how the brain processes information and moves it from one place to another is potentially valuable, and Niell said the research could have numerous uses down the road. There are potential implications for everything from improving peoples ability to focus on the tasks in their daily lives to addressing more serious conditions such as attention deficit disorder or even schizophrenia and some psychiatric diseases.

Niell said it could help explain other phenomena, including the so-called cocktail party effect. The phenomenon, which is sometimes described as selective attention or selective hearing, refers to the brains ability to dial into one conversation while tuning out multiple different conversations happening nearby.

Whats more, Niell said, the project has special resonance in our current era when so many of us are facing additional responsibilities and distractions.

Many of us have kids at home doing school work and were trying to avoid scrolling on our phones to figure out who won the election and things like that, Niell said. This research is especially relevant now, when we are in this world where theres just too many things going on for us.

By Lewis Taylor, University Communications

Link:
Neuroscience team wins grant to explore cognitive flexibility - AroundtheO

Neuroscience

Metrion Biosciences and LifeArc Further Extend Neuroscience-focused Ion Channel Drug Discovery Collaboration – BioSpace

January 22, 2021 medical

Jan. 18, 2021 09:00 UTC

CAMBRIDGE, England & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Metrion Biosciences Limited (Metrion), the specialist ion channel CRO and drug discovery company, and LifeArc, a leading UK independent medical research charity, today announced a 12-month extension of their neuroscience drug discovery collaboration, as a result of the continued success of their ongoing agreement.

The collaboration is focused on the discovery of novel selective small molecular modulators of a specific two-pore domain potassium ion channel target, identified as likely to be involved in neurological pathogenesis, and has now progressed into the hit-to-lead optimisation phase. Initially signed in January 2019, the collaboration agreement was extended for the first time in December 2019. Following the achievement of mutually agreed criteria LifeArc has now exercised the option to extend the programme for a further 12 months.

Under the terms of the agreement, Metrion provides validated ion channel and electrophysiology-based assays and safety profiling services. LifeArc uses its expertise to identify novel modulators of CNS ion channel targets and all new chemical syntheses, with Metrion evaluating the pharmacological activities of LifeArc compounds using both automated electrophysiology and manual patch clamp technologies

Dr Edward Stevens, Head of Drug Discovery, Metrion Biosciences, said: The continued success of our collaboration with LifeArc is testament to the strength of both teams and the long standing and successful research relationship between our companies. The transition to lead optimisation for key chemical series, along with continuation of selected hit-to-lead activities, is very exciting, and I look forward to working together through 2021.

Dr Justin Bryans, Executive Director, Drug Discovery, LifeArc, commented: We are delighted to continue our work with Metrion in the field of neuroscience, capitalising on our combined expertise and capabilities to develop potentially life-changing drugs.

ENDS

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005028/en/

Neuroscience

Meet the OnlyFans model and neuroscience student who’s giving back to the troops – Military Times

January 22, 2021 medical

If you look through Cami Strellas various internet profiles, youll note that her posts range from sharing sultry images in tasteful lingerie to explaining interesting developments in neuroscience and debunking stereotypes about sex workers.

But where most service members will recognize her is from a viral 2020 Veterans Month TikTok post.

Working her way through a neuroscience graduate degree, Strella found herself inspired to invest some time in military appreciation after being personally impacted by the death of a close friend and Army officer who suffered from a traumatic brain injury and later took his own life.

By the the time the pandemic hit in early 2020, she was looking for a way that she could both pay her way through school and give back to the troops. What she found was OnlyFans, the platform where she uploads and streams adult content for her subscribers with some of them even seeking personalized videos and photos.

Observation Post caught up with Strella to learn more about her OnlyFans hustle, her plans to help others and how shes hoping to shatter stigmas surrounding sex workers.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Im 27. Im in graduate school for an allied health program, and Ill be specializing in neurological rehabilitation. I was born and raised in the Southeast U.S. and am the child of two immigrant parents, one of whom is a veteran. My family is aware of what I do, and they are actually very supportive.

What inspired you to join OnlyFans?

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Ive been in the adult industry for the last three years, including other online adult work. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, as you may know, OnlyFans became the platform of choice for all types of sex workers to use as venues shut down nationwide.

I worked in a gentlemens club previously, and I became increasingly worried about paying for my graduate school tuition as my program started in May 2020, so I joined the site as a creator.

Tell me about your connection to the military. Do you create specialized content for service members? If so, what made you decide to pursue that?

Many in the military and veteran community who follow me originally found me when a TikTok I posted went viral in November 2020. For Veterans Day this past year, I posted two videos, both of which have received a lot of attention.

The first video, I offered a free trial to my OnlyFans site for all military and veterans. I anticipated perhaps 200 to 300 people would take up the offer but it ended up bringing in over 3,000 in one day.

The second video was a little more somber in that I shared my experience of losing someone (an Army officer) to suicide after surviving a traumatic brain injury after three deployments. This is what sparked my interest to want to go into the neuroscience field to begin with to study TBIs and SCIs. He is still my why.

If anything, I just want service members to know that I care, and that although it may be in an unusual way, Im fighting to help them. I also donate 10 percent of my monthly earnings to a military charity and I typically have subscribers vote for which one they want me to donate to.

I wouldnt say I create anything specific in terms of content for service members, but a lot of my more public content is geared towards this community. I was raised in an area with a large concentration of service members of all branches, as well as federal government and contract workers, so I always felt embedded with the culture from a young age.

Speaking of service members, what are some the most common requests you get from them in terms of content?

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Everyone has a different experience and background, but personally, my family is well aware of what I do and are very supportive I know that is not the norm and I consider myself very fortunate.

There are many who do not agree with me or who dislike what I do. For those who may not know, sex workers and the military are not a new concept just take a drive around most military bases and youll likely see various strip clubs in the surrounding area.

OnlyFans, in my opinion, is just a version of this that has caught up with the times. The ease of accessibility is attractive to creators and subscribers for both long distance reasons and for staying safe during the pandemic.

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Meet the OnlyFans model and neuroscience student who's giving back to the troops - Military Times

Neuroscience

DHR Health Neuroscience Institute Recognized by National MS Society – Rio Grande Guardian

January 22, 2021 medical

A prestigious recognition, the National MS Society awards this title to a handful of healthcare providers each year

SPONSORED CONTENT: On January 4, 2020 DHR Health Neuroscience Institute, a leading provider of care for people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the Rio Grande Valley, was officially recognized as a Partner in MS Care through the National Multiple Sclerosis Societys Partners in MS Care program.

As the first and only partner in MS Care in the Rio Grande Valley and the only facility to offer a board certified and fellowship trained Multiple Sclerosis specialist in the region, this formal recognition honors the institutes commitment to continuously demonstrating exceptional expertise and the coordinated care necessary to treat people living with MS.

At DHR Health we are proud to offer National MS Society quality standards and we are dedicated to providing personalized care to every MS patient by offering the newest available disease modifying therapies, said Roberto Alejandro Cruz, M.D., at DHR Health Neuroscience Institute.

The Societys Partners in MS Care program recognizes committed providers, like Roberto Alejandro Cruz, MD, whose practices support the Societys initiative of affordable access to high quality MS healthcare for everyone living with MS regardless of geography, disease progression, and other disparities.

We are proud to partner with DHR Health Neuroscience Institute to enhance quality and dedicated care for the people who live with MS in the Rio Grande Valley said Anna Moss National MS Society Manager of Healthcare Provider Engagement, Advocacy and Healthcare Access, In earning this recognition, DHR Health Neuroscience Institute has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in MS care, making a tremendous impact on the nearly 1 million people living with MS in our country.

DHR Health Neuroscience Institute provides care for patients affected by a stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders, brain and spine injuries as well as other neurological issues. Also home to the regions only BlueCross BlueShield of Texas Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery with care provided by the regions only fellowship-trained spine surgeons, DHR Health Neuroscience Institute demonstrates leadership in expert care for evaluating and treating the most complex and challenging brain and nervous system disorders in the Rio Grande Valley.

Early and ongoing treatment can make a difference for people with multiple sclerosis. For more information call the DHR Health Neuroscience Institute at (956) 362-8500.

About DHR Health

DHR Health was founded in 1997 to help over 1.2 million residents resolve limited health care access challenges in a community that lacked public and county hospitals. Today, it is a modern, 500+ bed full-service health system serving over 280,000 patients annually, with 5500+ employees, over 650 physicians and more than 1,400 nurses dedicated to offering a full-continuum of care in over 70 different specialties and subspecialties. DHR Health proudly boasts the best specialty care in the region, a 24/7 functioning level-one trauma center, a robust clinical research division, and developing graduate medical education programs. DHR Health has revolutionized the health care landscape of the Rio Grande Valley and continues to raise the standard of care and transform the health care delivery model for the benefit all local residents. To learn more, visitwww.DHRHealth.com

About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Symptoms vary from person to person and range from numbness and tingling, to walking difficulties, fatigue, dizziness, pain, depression, blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are leading to better understanding and moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease. A recent study led by the National MS Society estimates that nearly 1 million people are living with MS in the United States; twice as many than previously thought.

About the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

The Society mobilizes people and resources so that everyone affected by multiple sclerosis can live their best lives as we stop MS in its tracks, restore what has been lost and end MS forever. Last year, the Society invested $40 million in MS research with more than 360 active projects around the world. Through its comprehensive nationwide network of services, the Society devoted $100 million to help more than one million people affected by MS connect to the people, information and resources needed to live their best lives. We are united in our collective power to do something about MS now and end this disease forever. Learn more atnationalMSsociety.org.

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DHR Health Neuroscience Institute Recognized by National MS Society - Rio Grande Guardian

Neuroscience

Cerevel Therapeutics Announces the Appointments of Deval Patrick and Deborah Baron to its Board of Directors – BioSpace

January 22, 2021 medical

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerevel Therapeutics, a company dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain totreatneurosciencediseases, announced today that it has appointed the Honorable Deval Patrick and Deborah Baron to serve as independent members of its Board of Directors.

Mr. Patrick, a former two-term governor of Massachusetts, is an experienced business and government leader with a deep understanding of the life sciences ecosystem. He currently serves as a director at Global Blood Therapeutics, Amwell, Twilio, and Environmental Impact Acquisition Corp. He is also the founder and chairperson of the TogetherFund, a political action committee that supports progressive politics and grassroots groups working to drive turnout and engagement among disenfranchised and marginalized voters. Mr. Patrick was previously a managing director at Bain Capital.

Ms. Baron is senior vice president, Worldwide Business Development for Pfizer Inc., where she leads all business development activities including prioritizing opportunities, managing evaluations, and executing transactions.

Deval and Deborah are each exceptional leaders in the life sciences community, and they will bring a diverse set of experiences and perspectives to Cerevel, said Tony Coles, M.D., chief executive officer and chairperson of Cerevel Therapeutics. I look forward to adding their voices, their wisdom and their experience to our board as we continue our aspiration to build the premier neuroscience company.

Cerevel exemplifies the innovative spirit of the life sciences industry in Massachusetts, as it seeks to bring new treatment options to patients facing Parkinsons disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and other devastating conditions, said Mr. Patrick. I am excited to join the Cerevel board and support the companys mission to change what is possible in neuroscience.

I am proud to continue Pfizers participation on the Cerevel board, as Cerevel applies its expertise in neurocircuitry and receptor selectivity to advance an innovative pipeline of medicines, said Ms. Baron. Cerevel has been purpose-built with an experienced team of drug developers and the capabilities to advance new treatment options for neuroscience diseases.

About Deval PatrickOriginally from the South Side of Chicago, Mr. Patrick has had a career as a business and civil rights attorney and business executive, becoming a partner at two Boston law firms and a senior executive at Texaco and Coca-Cola. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Mr. Patrick to the nations top civil rights post, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

In 2006, in his first bid for public office, he became Massachusetts first African-American governor. In his two terms as Governor, Mr. Patrick oversaw the expansion of affordable health care to more than 98 percent of state residents, launched initiatives stimulating clean energy and biotechnology, won a national Race to the Top grant, and steered the state out of recession to a 25-year high in employment.

From April 2015 to December 2019, he served as a managing director of Bain Capital LLC, where he focused on investments that deliver both a competitive financial return and significant positive social impact. Mr. Patrick is a Rockefeller Fellow, a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and the author of two books, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life and Faith in the Dream: A Call to the Nation to Reclaim American Values.

Mr. Patrick received a B.A. in English and American literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

About Deborah BaronDeborah Baron is senior vice president, Worldwide Business Development for Pfizer Inc. In this role, Ms. Baron leads all Pfizer business development activities including prioritizing opportunities, managing evaluations, and executing transactions.Ms. Barons team covers a wide range of transaction types including venture investments, collaborations, license agreements, mergers and acquisitions, and divestitures.

Prior to this role, Ms. Baron held positions of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, including leading business development activities in Pfizers Primary Care and Emerging Markets businesses.Before joining Pfizer in 2002, Ms. Baron was an associate principal in the New York office of McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm, and previously she worked as a manufacturing engineer at The Stanley Works in New Britain, Connecticut.

Ms. Baron earned her M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT.

About Cerevel Therapeutics

Cerevel Therapeutics is dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain to treat neuroscience diseases. The company is tackling neuroscience diseases with a differentiated approach that combines expertise in neurocircuitry with a focus on receptor selectivity. Cerevel Therapeutics has a diversified pipeline comprising five clinical-stage investigational therapies and several pre-clinical compounds with the potential to treat a range of neuroscience diseases, including Parkinsons, epilepsy, schizophrenia and substance use disorder. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Cerevel Therapeutics is advancing its current research and development programs while exploring new modalities through internal research efforts, external collaborations or potential acquisitions. For more information, visit http://www.cerevel.com.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on managements beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: may, will, could, would, should, expect, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, project, potential, continue, ongoing or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements about our potential to become a premier neuroscience company and the intended results of our strategy. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this press release will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Media Contact:Kate ContrerasW2Okcontreras@w2ogroup.com

Investor Contact:Matthew CalistriCerevel Therapeuticsmatthew.calistri@cerevel.com

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Cerevel Therapeutics Announces the Appointments of Deval Patrick and Deborah Baron to its Board of Directors - BioSpace

Neuroscience

A green agenda works in tandem with a premium positioning, so perhaps 2021 is the year snacking ‘gets’ sustainability – BakeryAndSnacks.com

January 22, 2021 medical

Pressure to be and do good is growing. For example, in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced a 12bn green agenda; brands can and should be doing better.

To be fair, there are already encouraging examples of mainstream FMCG brands putting a focus on sustainability. US agricultural co-op Ocean Spray recently revealed a new variant of high barrier, recyclable packaging for its Craveology Tuscan Herb snack packs; and France just rolled out an Eco-score system, with names like organic shop La Fourche onboarding the label for its own-brand products.

So, how should your snacking brand be tackling these growing sustainability demands?

Assuming youve addressed the obvious bad guys such as unsustainable palm oil, single-use plastic and irresponsible supply chains, the new challenge becomes clear: how can snacking brands communicate their sustainable credentials and efforts to do good, without distracting from the core product characteristics the consumer has become familiar with?

Youve got to convey any changes to the public without seeming opportunistic or being accused of completely changing the brand. But at the same time, you shouldnt be hiding your sustainability credentials under a bushel.

People have enormous loyalty to a range of product characteristics. They like the way the packaging looks, how it feels; they like the pack size, the way it looks familiar and jumps out to them from the supermarket shelf. Mess around with any of these things when youre building in messaging around sustainability, and you risk upsetting loyal consumers.

Guesswork only gets you so far. You need to get in peoples heads - neuroscience can help you do that.

Neuroscience can help identify how people feel about different aspects of your product, and just how far you can change things you can test a range of sustainability messages to see which ones work best for your brand. Its about communicating your sustainability credentials so that they are seen as better, and something the consumer cant do without. More on how that works later.

Going to market with a green product is just the beginning, though.

Customers dont have to make sacrifices on quality and taste anymore - gone are the days when a vegan protein bar would set you back three pounds and go down like sawdust. Good for the environment no longer means bad for your tastebuds, nor does it condemn a product exclusively to the depths of a local Holland & Barrett.

Today, when done right, sustainability clearly works in tandem with a premium positioning. Take eco-friendly cookies, which sell at more than a 100% premium. Sustainable chocolate also hikes its prices by an average of 50%. This means, now more than ever, that the experience has to justify the price tag. And that experience is anything and everything. The visual cues, the language, the tactile experience, the manner in which the brand conducts itself on social media, how it comes across on TV and billboards, how it looks on the shelf, and even how any influencers or celebrities represent your brands message.

Some of this stuff might seem like it doesnt matter, but every piece of your communications should ladder up to your sustainability message. If not, you risk alienating an entire generation - and future generations - from interacting with your product: NYU Stern research from last year concluded: The younger the household, the more likely they [are] to buy sustainability-marketed products.#

Given were in lockdown, you can use remote, online techniques like implicit association testing to assess how respondents react at speed to the brand assets you present to them. Implicit association measures how strongly people subconsciously link two concepts, such as Jaffa Cakes and sustainable. The stronger the association, the faster this link between the two words will come to mind, which is reflected in the response time.

This rapid-fire, real-time quizzing means you can collect honest answers this is not the same as being given a survey in the train station, or being put on the spot by a friend. This is the brain trying its best to make sense of information. Its not trying to impress anyone. Itll tell you what you need to know if your sustainable packaging is aesthetically awful, or the texture of your snack is uncomfortable, or if the price is putting people off, this testing will let you know. You can also run new ideas against your current packaging, comms and so on.

Naturally, neuroscience isnt the answer to everything. Sometimes, a good idea is a good idea and you just know it. But neuroscience decreases risk. With new pandemic-related restrictions and rules coming into play every day, it seems, theres now more risk than ever. Why take a blind leap of faith when you really dont have to?

Neuroscience

Change is in the air – University of California

January 22, 2021 medical

Sharon Tettegah has spent a good chunk of her career advocating for greater diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. A professor in UC Santa BarbarasDepartment of Black Studies and director of the campussCenter for Black Studies Research(CBSR), shes at the center of three national initiatives that aim to benefit faculty and students alike.

Among them are theAspire: The National Alliance for Inclusive & Diverse STEM Faculty program; the Neuro-Computational Center established with Kenneth S. Kosik, the campuss Harriman Professor of Neuroscience; and, with computer science professor Timothy Sherwood, a Google AI Award for Inclusion Research.

Diversity and excellence have always been cornerstones of our UC Santa Barbara community, and the past year has brought heightened reflection and action on issues of equity and justice across our campus, said UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang. We praise professor Tettegah for her critical leadership in spearheading these important academic initiatives, and for the knowledge and expertise she brings to advancing diversity and inclusion among our STEM fields. Such paramount efforts are collaborative, and we are grateful to all of our colleagues who are working alongside professor Tettegah to diversify and enhance programs across the disciplines.

UC Santa Barbarais committed to creating a community of students, faculty and staff that embraces the rich cultural, racial, geographic, economic and social diversity of the state of California, Tettegah said. We are continually striving to maintain a diverse academic community through the recruitment and academic preparation of academically qualified students, and through the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty and staff.

In the first initiative, UC Santa Barbarajoined 18 other universities across the nation in a three-year effort to develop inclusive faculty recruitment, hiring and retention practices. TheAspire: The National Alliance for Inclusive & Diverse STEM Faculty program, led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is intended to ensure inclusive teaching practices in STEM and that institutions increase the diversity of their STEM faculty.

I think its really important to in these times to address some of these issues, said Tettegah, who will be co-lead the initiative with Belinda Robnett, UC Santa Barbaras executive vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion. We are excited to be a member of the iChange initiative. We feel very honored to join 18 other institutions.

As part of the Institutional Change Initiative (IChange), UC Santa Barbarawill perform a comprehensive self-assessment of current practices and assets. It will then develop and implement plans to bring about change across all of its STEM programs.

As Tettegah noted, IChange is a comprehensive program that involves the contributions of many key faculty and administrators across the campus. Given the universitys goals for the program, cooperation at all levels is vital, she said.

In its application to the Aspire Alliance, UC Santa Barbaraidentified the three main goals it would pursue:

UC Santa Barbarais part of the third cohort to join the Aspire Alliance, bringing the total number of institutions participating in the institutional change effort to 54. The National Science Foundation funds the effort as part of its INCLUDES (Inclusion Across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) initiative.

Tettegah has teamed withKenneth S. Kosik, Harriman Professor of Neuroscience in UC Santa Barbaras Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, to establish the Neuro-Computational Center in the CSBR. The center is being supported by a $100,000 grant Kosik obtained from the Hearst Foundation.

In their proposal to establish the center, Kosik and Tettegah noted that while neurocomputation has become a fundamental skill and investigative tool for gaining insights in many disciplines, UC Santa Barbarahas lagged behind comparable universities in the field. Whats more, they said, black students arent represented in the and express a very high bar to entry.

The Neuro-Computational Center is intended bring Black students at UC Santa Barbarainto the field of neurocomputation, which requires expertise in such diverse disciplines as statistics, programming, computer science, linguistics as well as molecular cellular and cognitive neuroscience.

In a letter of support from Kosik andSpencer LaVere Smith, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, the co-directors of the UC Santa BarbaraBrain Initiative said the center will cultivate a talent pool in the black community to repair the current demographic skew among graduate students and beyond.

Tettegah has already reached out to scholars in the field to serve as mentors. Members of one group,Black in Neuro, are already on board.

Were trying to bring in people that the students are going to feel comfortable with, she said, people that understand the epistemology or a epistemological approach to engage them in ways where they dont feel like theyve been marginalized or put down. Thats the whole idea behind it.

Tettegah and co-PITimothy Sherwood, a UC Santa Barbaraprofessor of computer science, were awarded a 2020 Award for Inclusion Research from Google AI. Their proposal, Iterative Design of a Black Studies Research Computing Initiative Through Flipped Research, was one of 16 chosen from more than 100 applications from universities around the world.

The award, which comes with a one-year grant of $60,000, will help establish collaboration of UC Santa Barbaras Department of Computer Science and the CBSR. At its core, the collaboration is aimed at bringing the power of computational science to underserved Black and Latino student populations.

The flipped research model, Sherwood and Tettegah wrote in their proposal, is intended to put student scholars in the position of identifying and refining computing research topics that connect directly to their lived experiences and then proposing those ideas for topics of research by the broader community. Student teams, working through an iterative design process with faculty and graduate student mentors, will work to refine their broader research questions into a form similar to a traditional call for proposals (CFP). These CFPs can then be shared publicly and/or presented in person to interested program managers and industry leaders to inform their future research investment.

The interdisciplinary computing research, they said, would bridges Black Studies and Computer Science to create a new and student-driven foundation for understanding issues of personal significance through a diverse lens.

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Change is in the air - University of California

Neuroscience

Brown brain scientist wins early-career award from National Academy of Sciences – Brown University

January 22, 2021 medical

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] The National Academy of Sciences has named Michael J. Frank, a professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University, one of two recipients from across the nation of the 2021 Troland Research Award.

Every year, the academy presents two Troland Awards in the amount of $75,000 each to recognize unusual achievement by early-career researchers and to further empirical research within the broad field of experimental psychology. The award was established by a trust created in 1931 by the bequest of Leonard T. Troland, a prodigious physicist and psychologist whose life was cut tragically short.

Its an honor to be a recipient of the Troland Award, said Frank, who directs the Center for Computational Brain Science at Browns Carney Institute for Brain Science. Im humbled to be paired with the great scientists who have previously received this recognition.

Franks research is based in the field of computational cognitive neuroscience, which combines multiple levels of computation with different types of data in an effort to improve understanding of the link between brain and mind, with a particular focus on brain circuits controlling motivated cognition and behavior. He has leveraged insights from this work to improve prediction and guide treatment of brain disorders, helping to define the emerging field of computational psychiatry and neurology.

Were trying to understand the mechanisms of motivation in the brain how they interact with cognition, decision-making and learning, he said. Those principles can extend to a host of disorders in brain health.

Through computational models and original experimentation, Franks work has advanced the understanding of underlying cognitive algorithms and their biological mechanisms. His research builds a link from psychological and neuroscientific insights to clinical practice, and has contributed to the understanding of decision-making and cognitive deficits in Parkinsons disease and schizophrenia as well as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Frank, who joined the Brown University faculty in 2009, said the $75,000 award will enable him to pursue projects that arent directly supported by federal or foundation grants. His research group would like to explore riskier research questions and develop ideas at the exploratory level that could then lead to larger-scale funding, he said. As one example, he has considered research at the interaction between artificial intelligence, which powers things like voice recognition programs and automated cars, and natural intelligence.

Over the past few decades, computational approaches have helped us learn a lot about the problems the human brain is solving, while neuroscience and psychology have provided important clues as to how,Frank said. Wed like to go the other way, too, and take some of the ideas that weve gleaned from biological computation and scale them up so that we can help improve AI.

As part of the Carney Institutes broader focus on understanding the brain and applying that knowledge to improve lives, Frank will continue to work toward advancements that can impact human brain health, as well.

My overall hope for our research is that some of the insights from using computational methods to understand brain and mind can lead to tangible applications for people, he said.We want to take the insights about the mechanisms that weve studied from a computational perspective and say something concrete about the individual person and how they might benefit from one treatment or another. There are only a few examples in mental health in which we, as a community, have been able to do that Parkinsons disease is one of them. But wed love for that to extend to other disorders that are really impacting quality of life.

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Brown brain scientist wins early-career award from National Academy of Sciences - Brown University

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Market to witness high growth in near future – GroundAlerts.com

January 22, 2021 medical

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