Biochemistry

Gene yields insights into the causes of neurodegeneration | Cornell Chronicle – Cornell Chronicle

Across the globe, approximately 50 million people are living with dementia. The two most common forms are Alzheimers disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), which develop when neurons in specific parts of the brain stop functioning triggering memory loss and other behavioral or personality changes.

Without a cure, the World Health Organization predicts that number could rise by as many as 10 million cases per year. However, predicting the onset of these diseases is tricky because neurodegeneration can start years before people present any outward symptoms.

An electron microscope shows the myelin sheath in a healthy mouse brain. The myelins fatty tissue insulates neurons and protects them from damage.

Cornell researchers including Fenghua Hu, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and member of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, are taking a closer look at the factors that cause Alzheimers, FTLD and similar diseases. Hus latest study, A role of the frontotemporal lobar degeneration risk factor TMEM106B in myelination, was published June 23 in the journal Brain.

I want to have a better understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegeneration, Hu said. I hope that our research can facilitate therapeutic development of treatment options for patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases and other brain disorders.

Her team started by investigating a specific gene, called TMEM106B, which had been previously identified as a risk factor for several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimers and FTLD. Researchers also knew that a particular mutation in that gene caused a neurological defect known as hypomyelinating leukodystrophy, which creates a myelin deficit in the brain, leading to the deterioration of both motor skills and mental acuity.

Myelin is the fatty tissue that wraps around nerve fibers, or axons, in the nervous system. Like insulation, this tissue forms a sheath that surrounds the nerve fibers, protecting them from damage and allowing electrical impulses to be quickly transmitted along the nerve.

Hu wanted to see exactly how that one mutation in TMEM106B could cause so much damage. She also wanted to learn more about how the gene regulates the formation and maintenance of the myelin sheath under normal conditions.

We found that the mutation associated with the disease is a loss-of-function mutation, Hu said.

This distinction is critical since the Hu lab saw that TMEM106B is expressed in the cells that are responsible for forming the protective myelin tissue. Those cells are called oligodendrocytes, and within them, TMEM106B resides in the lysosome a tiny organelle that acts as a cellular recycling center.

Like the stomach, the lysosome must maintain a specific pH to keep its enzymes active. As oligodendrocytes build the myelin sheath, lysosomes remove any extraneous materials. They can also store myelins main membrane protein and deposit it in areas surrounding the nerve fibers.

Hus team discovered that the TMEM106B mutation prevented the gene from regulating both the pH inside the lysosome and the movement of the lysosome itself inhibiting the oligodendrocytes ability to build compact myelin layers.

Using a mouse model, Hu also noticed that an overall TMEM106B deficiency led to abnormal lysosome movement within the oligodendrocytes. This created defects in the myelin sheath, and the team observed behavioral changes, including poor motor coordination.

Additional research will examine the exact mechanism by which TMEM106B regulates lysosome function and will demonstrate how the mutation leads to the known neurological defects.

We want to explore whether the genes regulation of myelination contributes to its association with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimers, FTLD and other age-related dementia, Hu said.

First author on the paper is postdoctoral associate Tuancheng Feng, and co-authors include other members of the Hu lab: Rory Sheng 19, Mohammed Ullah 21, Christina Mendoza 19, Isabel Iscol Katz 21, Daniel Paushter, Ph.D. 18, Peter Sullivan, Ph.D. 17, lab technician Xiaochun Wu, and former students Xiaolai Zhou and Laura Camila Martinez Enriquez.

Collaborators also include Fred Maxfield, professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medicine, and his research associate Santiago Domenech.

Hu received funding from the Bluefield project to cure frontotemporal dementia, National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Jana Wiegand is the editorial content manager for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Continued here:
Gene yields insights into the causes of neurodegeneration | Cornell Chronicle - Cornell Chronicle

Physiology

Lung physiology and immune function could spare children from severe COVID-19 – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jul 8 2020

Differences in lung physiology and immune function in children could be why they are more often spared from severe illness associated with COVID-19 than adults, according to pediatric and adult physicians at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and Baylor College of Medicine, who teamed up to investigate the disparity.

The perspectives paper was recently published in American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.

According to the paper, only about 1.7% of the first 149,082 cases in the U.S. were infants, children, and adolescents younger than 18 years old. Authors noted that children under 18 make up 22% of the U.S. population. Only three pediatric deaths were identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of April 2020.

"These profoundly decreased rates of symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and death are well beyond statistical significance, require further examination, and may hold the key to identifying therapeutic agents," the authors wrote.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2s, called ACE2, are the doors that allow SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, to enter the body's cells. Children naturally have less ACE2 in the lungs than adults.

ACE2 are important for viral entry and there seems to be less of them in children, because they increase with age."

Matthew Harting, MD, MS, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatric Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, pediatric surgeon with UT Physicians, and senior author of the paper

Harting is also director of the pediatric ECMO program providing advanced cardiac and respiratory support at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital.

In addition to fewer ACE2 receptors, the authors note the immune system in children responds to viruses differently than that of adults, leaving less opportunity for severe illness in pediatric patients. There are several different mechanisms behind the differences, including the retention of T-cells in children, which are able to fight off or limit inflammation.

"T-cells have a viral response and also an immune modulator response. In severe cases of adult COVID-19 patients, we've seen that those T-cells are reduced, so the ability to fight the virus is also reduced. In kids, those T-cells seem to be maintained, so they are still able to prevent the virus," said Harry Karmouty-Quintana, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at McGovern Medical School, and a co-author of the paper.

Lung tissue in children naturally has a higher concentration of regulator T-cells. Patients with higher levels of T-cells also have higher levels of Interleukin 10 (IL-10), also known as human cytokine synthesis inhibitory factor, an anti-inflammatory cytokine.

"IL-10 inhibits the inflammation of other components like IL-6 that are detrimental. Adults tend to experience hyperinflammatory state, where kids do not," Karmouty-Quintana said. "In preclinical studies in mice, IL-10 has also shown to decrease with age."

The paper's findings were made possible through collaboration in a multidisciplinary group made up of pediatric and adult physicians and scientists in pediatric surgery, adult critical care, neonatology, and molecular biology.

"We, as physicians, have been challenged with the question of how to treat COVID-19 and we're learning in real time," said Bindu Akkanti, MD, associate professor of critical care medicine with McGovern Medical School, attending physician in critical care with Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, and a study co-author. "I knew that to figure out the best way to treat adults, we needed to get a team together to get to the bottom of why children were being spared from severe illness related to the virus. So, I reached out to Dr. Karmouty-Quintana and we teamed up with Dr. Harting and two other physicians in the Texas Medical Center to start investigating." Akkanti also sees pulmonary patients at UT Physicians.

"Collaborations like this between adult and pediatric providers are really important and this disease highlights where we can learn a lot when we compare the way it behaves in younger kids with older people," Harting said. "Even now as we're learning about effective treatments, we're seeing younger people handle this disease better than older people. Moving forward, physicians and scientists need multidisciplinary collaboration to continue learning - this is just another step in the right direction to attack this virus."

Krithika Lingappan, MBBS, was the first author of the paper and Jonathan Davies, MD, was a co-author. Both Lingappan and Davies are assistant professors of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and neonatologists with Texas Children's Hospital.

As a result of the collaboration, the team has begun a new study using blood samples from patients in different stages of COVID-19 to continue to understand how to treat the virus and the disparities in disease progression between children and adults.

Source:

Journal reference:

Lingappan, K., et al. (2020) Understanding the age divide in COVID-19: why are children overwhelmingly spared?. American Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. doi.org/10.1152/ajplung.00183.2020.

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Lung physiology and immune function could spare children from severe COVID-19 - News-Medical.Net

Physiology

NIH researchers reframe dog-to-human aging comparisons – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Comparing epigenetic differences between humans and domestic dogs provides an emerging model of aging.

One of the most common misconceptions is that one human year equals seven dog years in terms of aging. However, this equivalency is misleading and has been consistently dismissed by veterinarians. A recent study, published in the journalCell Systems, lays out a new framework for comparing dog-to-human aging. In one such comparison, the researchers found the first eight weeks of a dogs life is comparable to the first nine months of human infancy, but the ratio changes over time. The research used epigenetics, a process by which modifications occur in the genome, as a biological marker to study the aging process. By comparing when and what epigenetic changes mark certain developmental periods in humans and dogs, researchers hope to gain specific insight into human aging as well.

Researchers performed a comprehensive analysis and quantitatively compared the progression of aging between two mammals, dogs and humans. Scientists at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and collaborators at the University of California (UC) San Diego, UC Davis and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine carried out the research.

All mammals experience the same overarching developmental timeline: birth, infancy, youth, puberty, adulthood and death. But researchers have long sought specific biological events that govern when such life stages take place. One means to study such a progression involves epigenetics gene expression changes caused by factors other than the DNA sequence itself. Recent findings have shown that epigenetic changes are linked to specific stages of aging and that these are shared among species.

Researchers focused on one type of epigenetic change called methylation, a process in which molecules called methyl groups are attached to particular DNA sequences, usually parts of a gene. Attaching to these DNA regions effectively turns the gene into the "off" position. So far, researchers have identified that in humans, methylation patterns change predictably over time. These patterns have allowed the creation of mathematical models that can accurately gauge the age of an individual called "epigenetic clocks."

But these epigenetic clocks have only been successful in predicting human age. They do not seem to be valid across species, such as in mice, dogs, and wolves. To see why the epigenetic clocks in these other species differed from the human version, researchers first studied the epigenetic changes over the lifetime of a domestic dog and compared the resultsobtained with humans.

Dogs are a useful model for such comparisons because much of their environment, diet, chemical exposure, and physiological and developmental patterns are similar to humans.

"Dogs experience the same biological hallmarks of aging as humans, but do so in a compressed period, around 10 to 15 years on average, versus over 70 years in humans. This makes dogs invaluable for studying the genetics of aging across mammals, including humans," said Elaine Ostrander, Ph.D., NIH Distinguished Investigator and co-author of the paper.

Dr. Ostrander and her colleagues in Trey Ideker's laboratory at UC San Diego took blood samples from 104 dogs, mostly Labrador retrievers, ranging from four weeks to 16 years of age. They also obtained previously published methylation patterns from 320 people, whose ages ranged from 1 to 103 years. The researchers then studied and compared the methylation patterns from both species.

Based on the data, researchers identified similar age-related methylation patterns, specifically when pairing young dogs with young humans or older dogs with older humans. They did not observe this relationship when comparing young dogs to older humans and vice versa.

The study also found that groups of specific genes involved in development can explain much of the similarity, which had similar methylation patterns during aging in dogs and humans.

"These results suggest that aging can, in part, be explained by a continuum of changes beginning in development," said Dr. Ideker. "The programs of development are expressed incredibly strongly at defined periods when the pup is in the womb and childhood. But equally strongly are systems that clamp down to stop it. In a sense, we are looking at aging as the residual 'afterburn' of those powerful forces."

The researchers also attempted to correlate the human epigenetic clock with dogs, using this as a proxy for converting dog years to human years.

The new formula is more complicated than the "multiply by seven" method. When dogs and humans experience similar physiological milestones, such as infancy, adolescence and aging, the new formula provided reasonable estimates of equivalent ages. For example, by using the new formula, eight weeks in dogs roughly translates to nine months in humans, which corresponds to the infant stage in both puppies and babies. The expected lifespan of senior Labrador retrievers, 12 years, correctly translates to 70 years in humans, the worldwide average life expectancy.

The group acknowledges that the dog-to-human years formula is largely based on data from Labrador retrievers alone. Hence, future studies with other dog breeds will be required to test the formula's generalizability. Because dog breeds have different life spans, the formula may be different among breeds.

Dr. Ostrander noted, "It will be particularly interesting to study long-lived breeds, a disproportionate number of which are small in size, versus breeds with a shorter lifespan, which includes many larger breeds. This will help us correlate the well-recognized relationship between skeletal size and lifespan in dogs."

The study also demonstrates that studying methylation patterns may be a useful method to quantitatively translate the age-related physiology experienced by one organism (e.g., humans) to the age at which physiology in a second organism is most similar (e.g., dogs). The group hopes that such translation may provide a useful tool for understanding aging and identifying ways to maximize healthy lifespans.

"This study, which highlights the relevance of canine aging studies, further expands the utility of the dog as a genetic system for studies that inform human health and biology," said Dr. Ostrander.

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research.

NHGRI is one of the 27 institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health. The NHGRI Extramural Research Program supports grants for research, and training and career development at sites nationwide. Additional information about NHGRI can be found at https://www.genome.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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NIH researchers reframe dog-to-human aging comparisons - National Institutes of Health

Physiology

Sensors were allowed to prove themselves by test with increased pre-night temperature in tomato – hortidaily.com

In 'The Road to Digital Green Fingers' project, researchers increased the pre-night temperature in a tomato cultivation by one degree for four weeks. In this way, the crop was 'bullied' to see how far it could go, but especially also to understand the physiology behind the measurements. The better that goes, the easier it will be to cultivate remotely later on.

"The crop is now recovering," said Alex van Klink of the Delphy Improvement Center, responsible for the research for the project, about the treatment that was stopped in week 24. He saw that the crop started to consume assimilates faster. "In itself we can explain from the physiology what the raising of the pre-night temperature does, but the question for us is mainly whether you can also catch it with sensors and then also can understand it."

Alex in the test greenhouse

Understanding measurementsIn the latter, the researchers from Delphy and Wageningen University & Research are interested in and various other parties as well, namely AgroEnergy, 2Grow, De Ruiter Seeds, Hazera Seeds, Signify and Ludvig Svensson. All parties are primarily concerned in understanding plant reactions with the sensor network. In this way, plant responses can be measured before they are visible to the naked eye. Ultimately, this should lead to the application of the knowledge in order to start controlling the cultivation.

More objective measuringUsing a combination of, among other things, sap flow sensors and scales to measure the weight of the plant, the researchers are mapping balance or imbalance in water consumption, assimilates, but also in growth height and fruits.

"By using sensors for more objective measuring in the near future, you can see things that the grower or advisor cannot see with the naked eye. That means that the grower can soon be less in the greenhouse and also that you can limit the movements of advisers from greenhouse to greenhouse. An advantage with the high virus pressure that is present in, for example, tomatoes."

Six treatments testedIn total, six treatments will be tested in the project, which runs until mid-September and for which financial support was obtained from the Topsector Tuinbouw & Uitgangsmaterialen. "With EC, lighting and irrigation, well also be looking for the limit again. And in case we would cross it, that will also be instructive. We have that advantage over production growers."

A follow-up test can then be carried out with the acquired knowledge. In this way, greenhouse horticulture is progressing step by step towards autonomous cultivation, but not without people that will be able to keep in step with the technology and also will be able to fully rely on it. The latter is an important condition for the grower with green fingers in order to relinquish control.

For more information:Delphywww.delphy.nl

Alex van Klinka.vanklink@delphy.nl

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Sensors were allowed to prove themselves by test with increased pre-night temperature in tomato - hortidaily.com

Physiology

Trial to see if immune booster can protect cancer patients from Covid-19 – ThePrint

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New Delhi: As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage through the world, scientists are making new revelations about the virus every day.

Here are some of the latest research developments on the Covid-19 front.

Scientists in Canada have launched clinical trials focussed on strengthening the immune system for cancer patients one of the most vulnerable populations to protect them from Covid-19.

The trial involves IMM-101, an inactivated bacteria that broadly stimulates the innateimmune system, which is the first to kick in when the body encounters a novel pathogen.

The researchers hope that boosting cancer patients immune systems with IMM-101 will protect them from developing severe Covid-19 and other dangerous lung infections.

The researchers said that an effective vaccine providing specific protection against Covid-19 could take another year or more to develop. Meanwhile, they believe the IMM-101 may be able to protect cancer patients from developing a serious Covid infection.

Also read: Asthma does not increase risk or severity of Covid-19, says new study

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A review of Covid-19 patients has shown that cases of brain complications linked to the coronavirus infection, such as confusion, stroke and inflammation of the brain, are occurring across the globe.

Published in The Lancet Neurology, the study has found that strokes, delirium and other neurological complications have been reported from most countries with large outbreaks of the disease.

The infection caused by the novel coronavirus has been mostly associated with problems such as difficulty in breathing, fever and cough. However, it is now becoming clear that other problems can also occur in patients.

For this study, researchers analysed findings from Covid-19 studies across the globe that reported on neurological complications. The review included studies from China, Italy and the US. It found nearly 1,000 patients with Covid-19-associated brain, spinal cord and nerve diseases.

While these complications are uncommon, the large number of Covid-19 cases globally means the overall number of patients with neurological problems is also likely to be high.

Naturally occurring molecules called resolvins can be harnessed to control the life-threatening immune reaction, called a cytokine storm, in Covid-19 patients, scientists have said.

A cytokine storm is when the bodys immune system overreacts and begins attacking healthy cells too.

The cytokine storm in Covid-19 patients can lead to respiratory failure, organ damage and potential death.

In a study published in the Cancer and Metastasis Reviews, researchers have said that controlling the local and systemic inflammatory response in Covid-19 may be as important as anti-viral therapies.

They suggest that a family of molecules naturally produced by the human body may be harnessed to resolve inflammation in patients with severe Covid-19. This would reduce the acute respiratory distress and other life-threatening complications associated with the viral infection.

Resolvins can actively turn off inflammation. Researchers have previously demonstrated that resolvins and related molecules can play a role in preventing cancer metastasis and progression.

These are current clinical trials on these molecules, to look at their use against other inflammatory diseases. Scientists have suggested that they could be re-deployed for the management of Covid-19.

Scientists have identified the differences in lung physiology and immune function in children that could explain why they are less susceptible to severe Covid-19 illness than adults.

Published in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, the study suggests that children naturally have less ACE2 in the lungs than adults. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2s, called ACE2, allow SARS-CoV-2 to enter the bodys cells.

According to the study, only about 1.7 per cent of the first 1,49,082 cases in the US were under 18 years of age.

The findings from the study require further examination, and may hold the key to identifying therapeutic agents, researchers have said.

Months of self-isolation and social distancing can trigger stressors in the body that increase vulnerability to upper respiratory viruses and perhaps coronavirus, a study has suggested.

To slow the spread of coronavirus, many communities issued stay-at-home measures, increasing interpersonal stressors like loneliness, loss of employment and familial conflict.

According to an article published in the Perspectives on Psychological Science, these stressors may be powerful predictors of how a person will respond if exposed to coronavirus.

In a series of studies, researchers found that participants experiencing interpersonal stressors had a greater chance of developing upper respiratory illnesses when exposed to cold viruses.

Interpersonal stressors might play a similar role in response to the coronavirus, increasing a persons vulnerability to Covid-19.

The study indicates that social support may offer a protective shield against respiratory infection and illness.

Also read: CanSino, Moderna, Novavax: A list of Covid vaccines under clinical trials across the world

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Physiology

Jeremy Xu Joins Ingredion as Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer – GlobeNewswire

WESTCHESTER, Ill., July 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE: INGR), a leading global provider of ingredient solutions, today announced that Jeremy Xu has been named senior vice president, and chief innovation officer, effective October 1. In this capacity, Xu will be responsible for advancing the Companys focus on specialty growth platforms, identifying new growth opportunities and overseeing the Ingredion Idea Labs innovation centers. Xu will report to Jim Zallie, president and chief executive officer.Xuwill succeed Tony DeLio who will be retiring in February 2021 after 14 years of service.

Xu joins the Company from Royal DSM, where he spent four years leading a global business unit in the nutritional ingredients space. Before that role, he spent 16 years at DuPont serving in a variety of leadership roles across Asia and the U.S.

Jeremy is an accomplished global leader with a strong reputation for successfully driving innovation and growth while cultivating high-performing, agile teams, said Zallie. Jeremy brings a global perspective and deep specialty food ingredient experience, which is critical as we identify new opportunities for our customers. We look forward to having an executive of his caliber join the Ingredion team.

Xu holds a bachelors degree in biology and biomedical engineering from Zhejiang University in China and earned a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology as well as a masters degree in business administration from Purdue University. He also holds a masters degree in plant physiology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Xu is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Xu will relocate to the New Jersey area from Switzerland with his family.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE: INGR) headquartered in the suburbs of Chicago, is a leading global ingredient solutions provider serving customers in more than 120 countries. With 2019 annual net sales of more than $6 billion, the company turns grains, fruits, vegetables and other plant-based materials into value-added ingredient solutions for the food, beverage, animal nutrition, brewing and industrial markets. With Ingredion Idea Labsinnovation centers located around the world and more than 11,000 employees, the Company co-creates with customers and fulfills its purpose of bringing the potential of people, nature and technology together to make life better. Visitingredion.comfor more information and the latest Company news.

CONTACTS:Investors: Tiffany Willis, 708-551-2592Media: Becca Hary, 708-551-2602

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Jeremy Xu Joins Ingredion as Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer - GlobeNewswire

Neuroscience

Synthetic odors created by activating brain cells help neuroscientists understand how smell works – The Conversation US

When you experience something with your senses, it evokes complex patterns of activity in your brain. One important goal in neuroscience is to decipher how these neural patterns drive the sensory experience.

For example, can the smell of chocolate be represented by a single brain cell, groups of cells firing all at the same time or cells firing in some precise symphony? The answers to these questions will lead to a broader understanding of how our brains represent the external world. They also have implications for treating disorders where the brain fails in representing the external world: for example, in the loss of sight of smell.

To understand how the brain drives sensory experience, my colleagues and I focus on the sense of smell in mice. We directly control a mouses neural activity, generating synthetic smells in the olfactory part of its brain in order to learn more about how the sense of smell works.

Our latest experiments discovered that scents are represented by very specific patterns of activity in the brain. Like the notes of a melody, the cells fire in a unique sequence with particular timing to represent the sensation of smelling a unique odor.

Using mice to study smell is appealing to researchers because the relevant brain circuits have been mapped out, and modern tools allow us to directly manipulate these brain connections.

The mice we use are genetically engineered so we can activate individual brain cells simply by shining light of specific wavelengths onto them a technique known as optogenetics. Early uses of optogenetics involved light delivered through implanted optical fibers, letting researchers control coarse patches of brain cells. More recent uses of optogenetics allow more sophisticated control of precise patterns of brain activity.

For our study, we projected light patterns onto the surface of the brain, targeting a region known as the olfactory bulb. Previous research has found that when mice sniff different scents, cells in the olfactory bulb appear to fire in a sort of patterned symphony, with a unique pattern formed in response to each distinct smell.

When we shined light patterns onto a mouses olfactory bulb, it generated corresponding patterns of cellular activity. We called these patterns synthetic smells. As opposed to a pattern of activity triggered by a mouse sniffing a real odor, we directly triggered the neural activity of a synthetic smell with our light projections.

Next we trained each individual mouse to recognize a randomly generated synthetic smell. Since they cant describe to us in words what theyre perceiving, we rewarded each mouse with water if it licked a water spout whenever it detected its assigned smell. Over weeks of training, mice learned to lick when their assigned smell was activated, and not to lick for other randomly generated synthetic smells.

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We cannot say for sure that these synthetic smells correspond to any known odor in the world, nor do we know what they smell like to the mouse. But we did calibrate our synthetic patterns to broadly resemble olfactory bulb patterns observed when actual scents are present. Furthermore, mice learn to discriminate synthetic smells about as quickly as they did real smells.

Once each mouse learned to recognize its assigned synthetic smell, we measured how much they still licked when we modified the assigned smell. Within each synthetic pattern, we altered which cells were activated or when they activated.

Imagine taking a familiar song, changing individual notes in the song, and asking whether you still recognized the song after each change. By testing many different changes, one can eventually understand which precise composition of notes is essential to the songs identity and which tweaks are extreme enough to make the song unrecognizable.

Likewise, by measuring how mice changed their licking as we modified their projected light patterns, we were able to understand which combinations of cells within the pattern were important for identifying the synthetic smell.

The precise combination of cells activated was crucial. But just as important was when they are activated in an ordered sequence, akin to timed notes in a melody. For example, changing the order of cells in the sequence would render the smell unrecognizable.

It turned out that the cells activated earlier in the sequence were more important for recognition changing the sequences later in the pattern seemed to have negligible effects.

Changes in recognition were graded, and not drastic: When we changed small parts of the pattern, the smell did not become completely unrecognizable. In fact, the degree to which the smell was recognized was proportional to the degree of change in the pattern. This implies that if I slightly modify the brain activity that represents an orange, you would still smell something similar maybe recognizing it as citrus, or fruity.

So while the brain has huge capacity to store many different smells in unique timed sequences of cell activity, you can still recognize similar smells by the similarity in their patterns: The smell of coffee is still distinctly recognizable even with a splash of vanilla added to it.

The next step in this research is to bring the synthetic approach to real smells. To do so, we would need to record brain activity in response to a real smell, then reactivate the very same cells using optogenetics. The synthetic re-creation of real objects in the brain is the current focus of research in multiple labs including ours.

Addressing this issue is exciting because it opens up possibilities not just for understanding how the brain works, but also for developing brain implants that may one day restore the loss of sensory experiences.

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Synthetic odors created by activating brain cells help neuroscientists understand how smell works - The Conversation US

Neuroscience

POTENTIAL IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK ON Neuroscience Technologies MARKET POTENTIAL GROWTH, SHARE AND DEMAND-ANALYSIS OF KEY PLAYERS BD, Abbott,…

The globalNeuroscience Technologies Marketis carefully researched in the report while largely concentrating on top players and their business tactics, geographical expansion, market segments, competitive landscape, manufacturing, and pricing and cost structures. Each section of the research study is specially prepared to explore key aspects of the global Neuroscience Technologies market. For instance, the market dynamics section digs deep into the drivers, restraints, trends, and opportunities of the global Neuroscience Technologies market. With qualitative and quantitative analysis, we help you with thorough and comprehensive research on the global Neuroscience Technologies market. We have also focused on SWOT, PESTLE, and Porters Five Forces analyses of the global Neuroscience Technologies market.

Leading players of the global Neuroscience Technologies market are analyzed taking into account their market share, recent developments, new product launches, partnerships, mergers or acquisitions, and markets served. We also provide an exhaustive analysis of their product portfolios to explore the products and applications they concentrate on when operating in the global Neuroscience Technologies market. Furthermore, the report offers two separate market forecasts one for the production side and another for the consumption side of the global Neuroscience Technologies market. It also provides useful recommendations for new as well as established players of the global Neuroscience Technologies market.

Request sample copy of this report:https://www.reporthive.com/request_sample/2363650

Major Players:

BDAbbottMedtronic

Segmentation by Product:

General GradeModified Grade

Segmentation by Application:

ResearchTherapeutics

Regions and Countries:U.S, Canada, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Rest of Europe, India, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Rest of APAC, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Rest of LATAM, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE.

Report Objectives

Table of Contents

Report Overview:It includes major players of the global Neuroscience Technologies market covered in the research study, research scope, and Market segments by type, market segments by application, years considered for the research study, and objectives of the report.

Global Growth Trends:This section focuses on industry trends where market drivers and top market trends are shed light upon. It also provides growth rates of key producers operating in the global Neuroscience Technologies market. Furthermore, it offers production and capacity analysis where marketing pricing trends, capacity, production, and production value of the global Neuroscience Technologies market are discussed.

Market Share by Manufacturers:Here, the report provides details about revenue by manufacturers, production and capacity by manufacturers, price by manufacturers, expansion plans, mergers and acquisitions, and products, market entry dates, distribution, and market areas of key manufacturers.

Market Size by Type:This section concentrates on product type segments where production value market share, price, and production market share by product type are discussed.

Market Size by Application:Besides an overview of the global Neuroscience Technologies market by application, it gives a study on the consumption in the global Neuroscience Technologies market by application.

Production by Region:Here, the production value growth rate, production growth rate, import and export, and key players of each regional market are provided.

Consumption by Region:This section provides information on the consumption in each regional market studied in the report. The consumption is discussed on the basis of country, application, and product type.

Company Profiles:Almost all leading players of the global Neuroscience Technologies market are profiled in this section. The analysts have provided information about their recent developments in the global Neuroscience Technologies market, products, revenue, production, business, and company.

Market Forecast by Production:The production and production value forecasts included in this section are for the global Neuroscience Technologies market as well as for key regional markets.

Market Forecast by Consumption:The consumption and consumption value forecasts included in this section are for the global Neuroscience Technologies market as well as for key regional markets.

Value Chain and Sales Analysis:It deeply analyzes customers, distributors, sales channels, and value chain of the global Neuroscience Technologies market.

Key Findings:This section gives a quick look at important findings of the research study.

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Neuroscience

Research project that aims to advance neuroscience gets go ahead for 150 million final phase Research project that aims to advance neuroscience gets…

Work has started on the final stage of one of thelargest scientific projects everfunded by the European Union, with help from researchers at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).

The Human Brain Project (HBP) has been granted150million from the European Commission to build a research infrastructureinvolvingrobots, artificial intelligence, supercomputers,bigdataanalyticsandsimulationthatcould help advanceneuroscience,brain-relatedmedicineand computing.

Experts from DMUs Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR) have been tasked with managing the ethics-related activities andcontributing to theimplementation of responsible research and innovation across the project.

Professor Bernd Stahl, Director of the CCSR, said:DMU has a key role in the HBP, looking after the management of all ethical issues and social implications of the research.

As part of this, we provideguidanceand advice on the actual and potential impacts ofthecomputing and related technologies involved.

Establishedin 2013, the HBP isone ofthe largestresearchprojectsin Europe. Now entering the final phase of its10-year lifespan, theproject willpresent its scientific workplan and transformative technological offerings for brain research and brain-inspired research and development.

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There are six elements that form the heart of the research infrastructure of the HBP, including:

The HBP also undertakestargeted research and theoreticalstudies, and exploresbrain structureand function in humans, rodents and other species.

Over the next three years, the project will narrow its focus to advance three core scientific areasthat use brain-inspired systems intended to replicate the way that humans learn, includingbrain networks, their role in consciousness, and artificial neural networks.

There are some 500 scientists involved in the project, at more than 100 universities, teaching hospitals and research centres across Europe.

For more information visit:www.humanbrainproject.eu

Posted on Monday 6th July 2020

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Research project that aims to advance neuroscience gets go ahead for 150 million final phase Research project that aims to advance neuroscience gets...