Immunology

Gut-skin axis may hold the answer to hidradenitis suppurativa – Pharmaceutical Technology

At the 30th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress held from 29 September to 2 October, results were presented from a study exploring patterns in the skin, nasal mucosa and gut microbiomes of 59 patients with the rare skin disease hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). HS, also called acne inversa, is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects apocrine gland-bearing skin in the axillae, groin and under the breasts. The disease is characterised by persistent or recurrent boil-like nodules and abscesses that culminate in a purulent discharge, sinus formation and scarring. Because effective therapies for the disease are limited, there is great unmet need for better treatment options.

The study by McCarthy and colleagues presented at EADV tested faecal samples, as well as nasal and skin swabs. It demonstrated compromised biodiversity both on the skin and in the gut of HS patients, and highlighted abnormal levels of specific bacterial species. HS-specific patterns in patients skin and gut microbiomes in this study suggest that, similar to psoriasis (PsO), HS may be a good candidate indication for microbiome-targeting therapeutics acting via the gut-skin axis, which is the relationship between the immune system and the neuroendocrine systems of the gut and skin.

In the study presented at EADV, McCarthy and colleagues confirmed reduced microbiome alpha and beta diversity in HS, as well as abnormally elevated levels of bacterial strains such as Clostridium ramosum in faecal samples and Finegoldia magna on skin samples of HS patients. Ruminococcus gnavus was, notably, over-abundant in the faecal microbiome of HS patients, a finding similarly reported in Crohns disease. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a relatively common comorbidity of HS, affecting around 1-3% of patients. It is possible that common microbiota alterations in HS and IBD could serve as a link between these comorbid conditions.

Lack of microbial diversity in both the skin and gut have been found to play a critical role in the pathology of other dermatological indications, particularly those with a more systemic pattern of disease manifestation, such as PsO, a disease that is also frequently associated with IBD. As explored in GlobalDatas recent Microbiome Targeted Therapeutics in Immunology report, there is currently one microbiome-targeting pipeline candidate for PsO, Evelo Biosciences EDP-1815, which targets skin symptoms via the modulation of gut microbiota. Evelo recently announced positive Phase IIb (NCT04603027) data for the drug in PsO and is about to initiate Phase IIa studies of the same drug for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. No microbiome-targeting therapies are currently under development for HS, but the data presented at EADV suggest that this disease may be a good candidate for a microbiome-targeting approach similar to that used in PsO.

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Neuroscience

Experts address the limitations of studying individual brains in cognitive neuroscience – News-Medical.Net

In a new paper, scientists suggest that efforts to understand human cognition should expand beyond the study of individual brains. They call on neuroscientists to incorporate evidence from social science disciplines to better understand how people think.

"Accumulating evidence indicates that memory, reasoning, decision-making and other higher-level functions take place across people," the researchers wrote in a review in the journal Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. "Cognition extends into the physical world and the brains of others."

The co-authors neuroscientist Aron Barbey, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Richard Patterson, a professor emeritus of philosophy at Emory University; and Steven Sloman, a professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University wanted to address the limitations of studying brains in isolation, out of the context in which they operate and stripped of the resources they rely on for optimal function.

In cognitive neuroscience, the standard approach is essentially to assume that knowledge is represented in the individual brain and transferred between individuals. But there are, we think, important cases where those assumptions begin to break down."

Aron Barbey, Neuroscientist and Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Take, for instance, the fact that people often "outsource" the task of understanding or coming to conclusions about complex subject matter, using other people's expertise to guide their own decision-making.

"Most people will agree that smoking contributes to the incidence of lung cancer without necessarily understanding precisely how that occurs," Barbey said. "And when doctors diagnose and treat disease, they don't transfer all of their knowledge to their patients. Instead, patients rely on doctors to help them decide the best course of action.

"Without relying on experts in our community, our beliefs would become untethered from the social conventions and scientific evidence that are necessary to support them," he said. "It would become unclear, for example, whether 'smoking causes lung cancer,' bringing into question the truth of our beliefs, the motivation for our actions."

To understand the role that knowledge serves in human intelligence, the researchers wrote that it is necessary to look beyond the individual and to study the community.

"Cognition is, to a large extent, a group activity, not an individual one," Sloman said. "People depend on others for their reasoning, judgment and decision-making. Cognitive neuroscience is not able to shed light on this aspect of cognitive processing."

The limitations of individual knowledge and human dependence on others for understanding are the themes of "The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone," a book Sloman wrote with Phil Fernbach, a cognitive scientist and professor of marketing at the University of Colorado.

"The challenge for cognitive neuroscience becomes how to capture knowledge that does not reside in the individual brain but is outsourced to the community," Barbey said.

Neuroscientific methods such as functional MRI were designed to track activity in one brain at a time and have limited capacity for capturing the dynamics that occur when individuals interact in large communities, he said.

Some neuroscientists are trying to overcome this limitation. In a recent study, researchers placed two people face-to-face in a scanner and tracked their brain activity and eye movements while they interacted. Other teams use a technique called "hyperscanning," which allows the simultaneous recording of brain activity in people who are physically distant from each another but interacting online.

Such efforts have found evidence suggesting that the same brain regions are activated in people who are effectively communicating with one another or cooperating on a task, Barbey said. These studies are also showing how brains operate differently from one another, depending on the type of interaction and the context.

Several fields of research are ahead of neuroscience in understanding and embracing the collective, collaborative nature of knowledge, Patterson said. For example, "social epistemology" recognizes that knowledge is a social phenomenon that depends on community norms, a shared language and a reliable method for testing the trustworthiness of potential sources.

"Philosophers studying natural language also illustrate how knowledge relies on the community," Patterson said. "For example, according to 'externalism,' the meaning of words depends on how they are used and represented within a social context. Thus, the meaning of the word and its correct use depends on collected knowledge that extends beyond the individual."

To address these shortfalls, neuroscientists can look to other social science fields, Barbey said.

"We need to incorporate not only neuroscience evidence, but also evidence from social psychology, social anthropology and other disciplines that are better positioned to study the community of knowledge," he said

Source:

Journal reference:

Sloman, S. A., et al. (2021) Cognitive Neuroscience Meets the Community of Knowledge. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.675127.

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Experts address the limitations of studying individual brains in cognitive neuroscience - News-Medical.Net

Neuroscience

Philip receives NIH grant for neuroscience research – The Source – Washington University Record

Benjamin Allen Philip, assistant professor of occupational therapy, of neurology and of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, received a five-year $2.1 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders.

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Philip receives NIH grant for neuroscience research - The Source - Washington University Record

Neuroscience

Gladstone Neuroscience Researcher Elected to the National Academy of Medicine – Yahoo Finance

Lennart Mucke is recognized for his pioneering discoveries in research on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lennart Mucke, MD, founding director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

Lennart Mucke is recognized by the National Academy of Medicine for his leading role in defining molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms by which Alzheimers disease causes synaptic failure, neural network dysfunctions, and cognitive decline. Photo: Michael Short/Gladstone Institutes

The prestigious recognition is a testament to Mucke's long track record of contributions to disease-focused neuroscience, and particularly to Alzheimer's disease and other conditions that rob people of their abilities to control and enjoy their lives.

Alzheimer's disease is a complicated and multifactorial condition that affects more than 50 million people worldwide, including 6 million in the United States, causing many abnormalities in the brain. Mucke has played a leading role in deciphering which of these abnormalities actually contribute to cognitive declineand therefore merit therapeutic interventionand which may be "red herrings," for example changes that look ominous under the microscope but do not actually cause loss of memory or other key symptoms of the disease.

In doing so, Mucke has debunked several dogmas and helped focus the field's attention on molecular and cellular processes that truly matter in regard to brain functions and the main symptoms that impair the lives of patients and their caretakers. His discoveries include the demonstration that key proteins implicated in Alzheimer's diseaseincluding amyloid-beta, apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4), and taucan cause brain dysfunctions independent of plaques and tangles, which are pathological hallmarks of the disease.

Mucke also discovered that tau regulates the activity of neurons, and that reducing the levels of this protein in the brain blocks abnormal neuronal activities in experimental models of diseases as diverse as Alzheimer's, epilepsy, and autism. Several of his scientific discoveries are being translated into novel therapeutics for these and related conditions by his team and others in academia and the biopharmaceutical industry.

Story continues

"I am most grateful to the outstanding investigators who nominated me and to the many NAM members who supported me with their vote," says Mucke, who is also the Joseph B. Martin Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and a professor of neurology at UC San Francisco. "Many of my former and current coworkers contributed to this achievement, and we all share this honor together. I greatly appreciate what the NAM stands for and will do whatever I can to support its mission."

A Global and Multipronged Approach to Overcoming Alzheimer's Disease

Despite a significant investment in research, potential therapies for Alzheimer's disease have been slow to arrive, most likely because of the complexity and multifactorial nature of the disease.

"The path toward generating therapeutics that are efficacious and safe when given to millions of people for many years is always challenging," Mucke notes. "This process is made even more difficult in the case of Alzheimer's disease because it affects the elderly, who often suffer from other aging-related conditions requiring treatments that might adversely interact with novel therapeutics for Alzheimer's."

To address this complexity, Mucke is leading efforts at Gladstone to investigate how multiple genetic and non-genetic factors come together to promote the disease. This multipronged approach is helping to diversify the drug development portfolio for Alzheimer's disease. Mucke and his colleagues are also using similar approaches to develop better therapies for other diseases that affect the nervous system, including Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, epilepsy, and autism.

"My hope is that our comprehensive strategy will improve treatment options for several common, devastating, and incurable diseases," says Mucke. "To be successful in this quest, we must continue to nurture interactions between basic scientists and clinicians, as well as between academia and industry."

To ensure an even broader, global impact of his experience and expertise, Mucke has served as an advisor on innovative neurodegenerative disease-focused initiatives to the governments of the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and to several major pharmaceutical companies.

He has also mentored over 60 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, many of whom are now leading their own labs throughout the country and continuing to contribute to the field of neuroscience research.

"I have a great passion for mentorship and like to tailor my approaches to the particular needs and potential of each individual," he says. "I believe that my colleagues and I have created an adventuresome team spirit and uncompromising standard of excellence that is ideal for training in disease-focused neuroscience."

Mucke has been at Gladstone since 1996, but can trace his interest in neuroscience and medicine back to his teenage years.

"I developed a great interest in psychiatry, neurology, and neuroscience when I was in high school and to this day can't think of anything more fascinating and rewarding than to discover how the brain works and how to preserve the fragile structures that harbor the very essence of who we are," he says.

He is a graduate of the Georg-August University and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Neurobiology) in Gttingen, Germany. He trained in internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and in neuroimmunology and neurovirology at The Scripps Research Institute. He is also a member of the American Neurological Association and the Association of American Physicians.

Mucke's election was announced on October 18, 2021, by the NAM, which is part of the congressionally chartered National Academy of Sciencesprivate, nonprofit institutions that provide objective advice on matters of science, technology, and health. He joins six fellow NAM members from Gladstone Institutes: Jennifer Doudna, PhD, senior investigator; Warner Greene, MD, PhD, senior investigator and director of the Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research; Robert W. Mahley, MD, PhD, senior investigator, president emeritus, and Gladstone founder; Deepak Srivastava, MD, senior investigator and current president of Gladstone; R. Sanders Williams, MD, former Gladstone president; and Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, senior investigator.

About Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, Gladstone Institutes focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impactunsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.

Media Contact: Julie Langelier | Associate Director, Communications | julie.langelier@gladstone.org | 415.734.5000 1650 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94158 | gladstone.org

Gladstone Institutes logo (PRNewsfoto/Gladstone Institutes)

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Gladstone Neuroscience Researcher Elected to the National Academy of Medicine - Yahoo Finance

Neuroscience

Advances in Health: Ayer Neuroscience Institute – WTNH.com

NORTH WINDHAM, Conn. (WTNH) -- Two teachers in North Windham just got some grant money to help with urban farming at the school.

Nicole Bay and Christian Kollegger are educators at Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy. They recieved $27,000 in Voya Financial Unsung Heroes grant money to help bring urban farming for food and STEM to students.

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Advances in Health: Ayer Neuroscience Institute - WTNH.com

Neuroscience

Gladstone Neuroscience researcher elected to – EurekAlert

image:Gladstone Investigator Lennart Mucke is recognized by the National Academy of Medicine for his leading role in defining molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms by which Alzheimers disease causes synaptic failure, neural network dysfunctions, and cognitive decline. view more

Credit: Photo: Gladstone Institutes

SAN FRANCISCO, CAOctober 18, 2021Lennart Mucke, MD, founding director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

The prestigious recognition is a testament to Muckes long track record of contributions to disease-focused neuroscience, and particularly to Alzheimers disease and other conditions that rob people of their abilities to control and enjoy their lives.

Alzheimers disease is a complicated and multifactorial condition that affects more than 50 million people worldwide, including 6 million in the United States, causing many abnormalities in the brain. Mucke has played a leading role in deciphering which of these abnormalities actually contribute to cognitive declineand therefore merit therapeutic interventionand which may be red herrings, for example changes that look ominous under the microscope but do not actually cause loss of memory or other key symptoms of the disease.

In doing so, Mucke has debunked several dogmas and helped focus the fields attention on molecular and cellular processes that truly matter in regard to brain functions and the main symptoms that impair the lives of patients and their caretakers. His discoveries include the demonstration that key proteins implicated in Alzheimers diseaseincluding amyloid-beta, apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4), and taucan cause brain dysfunctions independent of plaques and tangles, which are pathological hallmarks of the disease.

Mucke also discovered that tau regulates the activity of neurons, and that reducing the levels of this protein in the brain blocks abnormal neuronal activities in experimental models of diseases as diverse as Alzheimers, epilepsy, and autism. Several of his scientific discoveries are being translated into novel therapeutics for these and related conditions by his team and others in academia and the biopharmaceutical industry.

I am most grateful to the outstanding investigators who nominated me and to the many NAM members who supported me with their vote, says Mucke, who is also the Joseph B. Martin Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and a professor of neurology at UC San Francisco. Many of my former and current coworkers contributed to this achievement, and we all share this honor together. I greatly appreciate what the NAM stands for and will do whatever I can to support its mission.

A Global and Multipronged Approach to Overcoming Alzheimers Disease

Despite a significant investment in research, potential therapies for Alzheimers disease have been slow to arrive, most likely because of the complexity and multifactorial nature of the disease.

The path toward generating therapeutics that are efficacious and safe when given to millions of people for many years is always challenging, Mucke notes. This process is made even more difficult in the case of Alzheimers disease because it affects the elderly, who often suffer from other aging-related conditions requiring treatments that might adversely interact with novel therapeutics for Alzheimers.

To address this complexity, Mucke is leading efforts at Gladstone to investigate how multiple genetic and non-genetic factors come together to promote the disease. This multipronged approach is helping to diversify the drug development portfolio for Alzheimers disease. Mucke and his colleagues are also using similar approaches to develop better therapies for other diseases that affect the nervous system, including Parkinsons disease, frontotemporal dementia, epilepsy, and autism.

My hope is that our comprehensive strategy will improve treatment options for several common, devastating, and incurable diseases, says Mucke. To be successful in this quest, we must continue to nurture interactions between basic scientists and clinicians, as well as between academia and industry.

To ensure an even broader, global impact of his experience and expertise, Mucke has served as an advisor on innovative neurodegenerative disease-focused initiatives to the governments of the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and to several major pharmaceutical companies.

He has also mentored over 60 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, many of whom are now leading their own labs throughout the country and continuing to contribute to the field of neuroscience research.

I have a great passion for mentorship and like to tailor my approaches to the particular needs and potential of each individual, he says. I believe that my colleagues and I have created an adventuresome team spirit and uncompromising standard of excellence that is ideal for training in disease-focused neuroscience.

Mucke has been at Gladstone since 1996, but can trace his interest in neuroscience and medicine back to his teenage years.

I developed a great interest in psychiatry, neurology, and neuroscience when I was in high school and to this day cant think of anything more fascinating and rewarding than to discover how the brain works and how to preserve the fragile structures that harbor the very essence of who we are, he says.

He is a graduate of the Georg-August University and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Neurobiology) in Gttingen, Germany. He trained in internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and in neuroimmunology and neurovirology at The Scripps Research Institute. He is also a member of the American Neurological Association and the Association of American Physicians.

Muckes election was announced on October 18, 2021, by the NAM, which is part of the congressionally chartered National Academy of Sciencesprivate, nonprofit institutions that provide objective advice on matters of science, technology, and health. He joins six fellow NAM members from Gladstone Institutes: Jennifer Doudna, PhD, senior investigator; Warner Greene, MD, PhD, senior investigator and director of the Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research; Robert W. Mahley, MD, PhD, senior investigator, president emeritus, and Gladstone founder; Deepak Srivastava, MD, senior investigator and current president of Gladstone; R. Sanders Williams, MD, former Gladstone president; and Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, senior investigator.

###

About Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, Gladstone Institutes focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impactunsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.

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Gladstone Neuroscience researcher elected to - EurekAlert

Neuroscience

Bat study reveals secrets of the social brain – EurekAlert

image:A new study by neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, used wireless neural recordings of Egyptian fruit bats to provide a glimpse into how the brains of social animals process complex group interactions. view more

Credit: Photo courtesy Michael Yartsev

Berkeley Whether chatting with friends at a dinner party or managing a high-stakes meeting at work, communicating with others in a group requires a complex set of mental tasks. Our brains must track who is speaking and what is being said, as well as what our relationship to that person may be because, after all, we probably give the opinion of our best friend more weight than that of a complete stranger.

A study published today in the journal Science provides the first glimpse into how the brains of social mammals process these types of complex group interactions.

In the study, neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, used wireless neural recording devices to track the brain activity of Egyptian fruit bats as they freely interacted in groups and occasionally vocalized to each other through high-pitched screeches and grunts.

Most studies of communication, particularly vocalization, are typically performed with single animals or with pairs of animals, but basically none have been conducted in actual group settings, said study co-first author Maimon Rose, a graduate student in the NeuroBat Lab at UC Berkeley. However, many social mammals, including humans, typically interact in groups. Egyptian fruit bats, specifically, like to interact within large colonies.

By tracking which of the bats vocalized, while simultaneously measuring the real-time neural activity in both the vocalizing and the listening bats, the researchers were able to decode how neurons in the bats frontal cortices distinguished among vocalizations made by themselves and by others, as well how the bats distinguished among different individuals in the group.

When they compared the neural recordings among the different bats, they also found that brain activity became highly correlated when a bat made a vocalization. Surprisingly, they found that communication produced by bats that were friendlier those that spent more time in close proximity to others induced a higher degree of correlations across the brains of the group members.

Other neuroscience studies have tried to examine small pieces of these interactions individually. For example, one study might examine how neurons respond when somebody else speaks, and then a separate study might look at how neurons respond when that individual speaks, said study senior author Michael Yartsev, an assistant professor of neurobiology and bioengineering at UC Berkeley. This study is the first to really put all of these pieces together to get a full picture of communication within a social group.

Thousands of squabbling roommates

Like humans, Egyptian fruit bats are highly social creatures. After long nights spent flying 10 miles or more in search of ripe fruit, these nocturnal animals pass the daylight hours packed into tight caves and crevices alongside hundreds or thousands of other bats. Not surprisingly, studies suggest that these bats typically vocalize to squabble over food, sleeping space and mating attempts.

These bats are very long-lived they live about 25 years and basically their entire lives are spent in this group social living, Yartsev said. So, the ability to live together in a group and communicate with each other is an inherent feature of their lives.

Even in laboratory settings, bats seem to prefer the comfort of a crowd, typically spending most of their time physically pressed against each other in a tight cluster. Notably, aside from making clicking noises for echolocation, Egyptian fruit bats do not engage in any long-distance form of communication and appear to vocalize to other bats only when clustered together.

If you visit these bat caves, you can just look up and see tens of thousands of animals, Yartsev said. So, it really wouldnt make sense for a bat to shout across to the cave to another bat.

Bats habit of only vocalizing within tight social clumps makes them ideal subjects for studying group communication because, if a bat does call out while in a cluster, that call is most likely an indicator that social communication is taking place. However, this behavior also posed one of many technical challenges for the research team, said study co-first author Boaz Styr, a postdoctoral researcher in the NeuroBat Lab.

One big problem was trying to identify which bat made a vocalization, because they spend their time in tight clusters and sometimes obscure each other, Styr said. Even though we had high resolution cameras recording at different angles, and lots of microphones around, it could be hard to pinpoint which bat was making a call at exactly which point.

During the experiments, four to eight bats were allowed to freely interact in a darkened enclosure in the lab, and allowed to spontaneously vocalize. To accurately identify which bat made each vocalization, the team developed wireless vibration sensors that the bats could wear around their necks, almost like necklaces, and which could detect the vibrations created when a bat made a call.

These vibration sensors, paired with our ability to wirelessly record neural data from multiple bats at the same time, allowed us to create this experiment in which the bats could freely behave and spontaneously communicate, Styr said. Getting all of these technical things to work together was extremely challenging, but it allowed us to ask these very important questions.

Neurons for self and others

In one set of experiments, the researchers allowed groups of four or five bats to freely interact within a darkened enclosure in the lab, while carefully monitoring each bats vocalizations and brain activity.

They found that, within each bats frontal cortex an area known to be involved in mediating social behaviors in animals and humans separate sets of neurons were activated, depending on which bat in the group vocalized; in other words, a vocalization from one bat would stimulate activity in one set of neurons, while a vocalization from a different bat would stimulate a different set of neurons. These correlations were so strong that, after identifying which sets of neurons corresponded to which bat, the researchers could identify which bat had vocalized purely by looking at the neural activity of the other bats.

What these individual neurons cared about was, Am I making the call? Or is somebody else making the call? no matter what type of vocalization it was, Styr said. Other neurons were only sensitive to when one specific bat within the group was talking.

Earlier work from the NeuroBat Lab has demonstrated that the brains of bat pairs tend to sync up when they socialize. In this study, the authors discovered that during vocal communication, the whole group syncs up together. This effect was not observed when the bats simply heard playback of the same sounds, suggesting that this phenomenon was specific to active communication taking place among the group members.

Intriguingly, the degree of correlation among the group members brains appeared to depend on which bat was talking, with some bats having stronger synchronization with specific individuals. Remarkably, these inter-brain patterns lasted for weeks, presumably representing stable social relationships among the individuals.

To better understand how social dynamics impact brain activity, the researchers conducted a separate set of experiments in which eight bats were allowed to freely interact in a larger enclosure. In addition to monitoring the vocalizations and neural activity of each bat, they also tracked each bats spatial position relative to the other bats in the group.

Bats can recognize and have stable social relationships with other individual bats, even over long periods of time and in different circumstances, Rose said. And because we had this group of bats, we decided to track their positions in a larger area to see if that would tell us anything about their social relationships who likes whom, and who are more sociable bats and the less sociable bats.

They found that, while most in-cluster bats spent nearly all their time clumped together with other bats, a couple of out-of-cluster bats spent more time off to the side, separate from the group. Surprisingly, the team also found that the in-cluster or out-of-cluster status of a bat impacted the neural activity of the other bats during vocalizations.

We found that when the in-cluster bats vocalized, they elicited a much more accurate neural representation of their identity in the other bats and also elicited a much higher level of brain synchrony within the group, Rose said. So, while its not entirely clear what exactly is going on, it seems that the behavior of the out-of-cluster bats really shifts their neural representation in the brains of the other bats.

Understanding the neural underpinnings of why some individuals can navigate almost any social situation with ease, while others are consistently ostracized or misunderstood, could have major implications for improving human mental health, Yartsev said. He hopes the study inspires neuroscientists to take a more comprehensive look at group communication within other social mammals.

Often, in neuroscience, we like to take a simplified approach and focus on one component of a complex process at a time, Yartsev said. But in reality, the social world is complex. When we spend time with our friends, there's a lot of relationship history and baggage that comes with each interaction: what happened yesterday, who that person is friends with, how each person feels in the moment. And so, breaking things down and looking at them individually can give an illusion of control but, in fact, make it very difficult to get the complete picture.

Our brains, and those of animals, have evolved for and constantly struggle with the complexity of real life, Yartsev added. I personally believe that to truly understand the brain, we need to embrace this complexity, rather than fear it, and, indeed, every time we did so, we found out something new and exciting. I hope that this, as well as our other studies, demonstrate that we need to study the brain in all its complexity.

Co-authors of the paper include Tobias A. Schmid and Julie E. Elie of UC Berkeley. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Award DP2-DC016163), the National Institute of Mental Health (Award 1-R01MH25387-01), the New York Stem Cell Foundation (Award NYSCF-R-NI40), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Award FG-2017-9646), the Brain Research Foundation (Award BRFSG-2017-09), the Packard Fellowship (Award 2017-66825), the Klingenstein Simons Fellowship, the Human Frontiers Science Program, the Pew Charitable Trust (Award 00029645), the McKnight Foundation, the Dana Foundation and the Human Frontiers Science Program postdoctoral fellowship.

Experimental study

Animals

Cortical representation of group social communication in bats

21-Oct-2021

Excerpt from:
Bat study reveals secrets of the social brain - EurekAlert

Neuroscience

How sexism hinders brain research – University of California

Why does Alzheimers Disease afflict far more women than men? Why do some women report problems with memory and concentration during menopause?

Science can offer few answers, for a simple if frustrating reason: Over the decades, there has been relatively little research on the female brain. Emily Jacobs, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara, points to two main reasons for this discrepancy: Unfounded assumptions that have been passed down from generation to generation, and the fact that the vast majority of neuroscientists are men.

I dont think this pattern of overlooking womens health was done out of malice, she said. It might be the result of indifference or obliviousness.

Science is a human endeavor. The questions we ask and the way we design our studies are products of the people who get to ask the questions. Ultimately, scientists cant answer questions they dont see. For a field like neuroscience, where over 85 percent of tenured professors are men, its likely that menopause was never visible.

Leila Rupp, a professor of feminist studies and interim dean of the Graduate Division at UC Santa Barbara, puts it more bluntly. Theres a history of talking about womens brains from a very misogynist perspective, she said.

Rupp is organizer of the Feminist Futures Initiative, which is co-sponsoring a talk Jacobs is giving at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, in the UC Santa Barbara Librarys Pacific View Room. In The Scientific Body of Knowledge: Whose Body Does It Serve? Jacobs will discuss how the lack of female medical researchers has slowed progress in tackling womens health issues, as well as her labs work on how hormones impact brain function.

Part of the librarys Pacific View series, the lecture is free and open to the public. It will also be livestreamed on the UC Santa Barbara Library Facebook page.

Pregnancy, the menstrual cycle, menopause: All of these features of womens lives have been largely ignored by science, Jacobs said. Thats not just detrimental to womens health; its detrimental to our basic understanding of the brain.

Neuroscientists are often so taken by the complexities of the brain that we forget it is part of a larger biological system. Why should the brain care about whats going on down in our ovaries, or, for men, testes? Well, it does, in a pretty major way. About half of the neurons in your prefrontal cortexthe area right behind your forehead contain estrogen receptors.

According to Jacobs, medical researchers have traditionally thought of the female brain and to some extent, the female body as in constant flux due to hormonal changes, and therefore unknowable. This notion that females are inherently more variable than males because of hormones is unfounded by the data, and yet theres this lore, she said. It also overlooks the fact that men also possess hormones.

That misapprehension, she argued, has led to studies with flawed designs that fail to answer vital questions.

One of the biggest challenges in neuroscience is to understand what happens to the brain as it ages, she said. Entire research programs have used an outdated model that takes a group of people 65 years and older and compares them to a group of young adults. But that number 65 is a historical artifact thats rooted in the average retirement age of wage-earners. Its not based on biology.

Although neuroscientists have learned a tremendous amount about the aging brain, she added, that research convention leapfrogs over menopause, and blinds us to the kind of changes that are unfolding earlier in the aging process.

Jacobs and her team are attempting to fill that gap by studying how the female brain changes across the menstrual cycles, during pregnancy and over the menopause transition. She became fascinated by this area of research at UC Berkeley, where she earned her Ph.D.

I was in a terrific lab that was investigating the role of dopamine in human brain function, she recalled. Studying for my qualifying exam, I stumbled upon a small pocket of work in rodents that found the amount of estrogen in a mouses body can modulate the amount of dopamine in the brain. I was floored. Few people in my field were thinking about sex hormones in that way.

As I did more research on menopause, I realized this was systemic. Almost every aspect of womens brain health is understudied relative to men, Jacobs continued. My lab is devoted to correcting course to ensure that men and women get the full benefit of our research efforts. I have brilliant Ph.D. students who have taken up the cause. That brings me such joy.

While Jacobs is focused on looking at the brain and body holistically, Rupp is taking a similar approach with gender-related research here at UC Santa Barbara. The institute, launched in 2018, is forging links between researchers across campus whose work touches on feminist issues. The hope is that scholars from different disciplines can exchange knowledge and ideas and work collaboratively toward forging a better future.

Those of us who came into feminism in the 1960s and 1970s want to connect with a younger generation of leaders and empower future feminist leadership, Rupp said. Our goal is to develop a Center for Feminist Futures that is intergenerational, intersectional, and sponsors impactful research and programming.

To date, the initiative has sponsored or co-sponsored several dialogues on feminist issues, including a 2020 visit to campus by Anita Hill. The Division of Social Sciences, which sponsors the initiative, is about to launch a search for the first director of the future Center.

Rupp said she is thrilled to be asked to co-sponsor Jacobs talk, and Jacobs is equally excited by the collaboration. I cant wait to put our heads together, she said, noting the need for cross-disciplinary research on the barriers faced by female scientists. Im tickled that they exist, and I cant wait to join forces.

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How sexism hinders brain research - University of California

Neuroscience

Cerevel Therapeutics to Report Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 – Yahoo Finance

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerevel Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CERE), a company dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain to treat neuroscience diseases, today announced it will report third quarter 2021 financial results and pipeline updates on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, before the U.S. financial markets open.

Management will host a conference call to discuss third quarter 2021 financial results and recent pipeline updates on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. ET. To access the call, please dial 833-665-0655 (domestic) or 702-495-1044 (international) and refer to conference ID 9784674.

A live webcast of the call, along with supporting slides, will be available on the investors section of Cerevels website here. Following the live webcast, an archived version of the call will be available on the website.

About Cerevel TherapeuticsCerevel Therapeutics is dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain to treat neuroscience diseases. The company is tackling diseases with a targeted approach to neuroscience 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 upcoming financial results and pipeline update announcement and the potential attributes and benefits of our product candidates. 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. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those projected or suggested in the forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including, among others: clinical trial results may not be favorable; uncertainties inherent in the product development process (including with respect to the timing of results and whether such results will be predictive of future results); the impact of COVID-19 on the timing, progress and results of ongoing or planned clinical trials; other impacts of COVID-19, including operational disruptions or delays or to our ability to raise additional capital; whether and when, if at all, our product candidates will receive approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities, and for which, if any, indications; competition from other biotechnology companies; uncertainties regarding intellectual property protection; and other risks identified in our SEC filings, including those under the heading Risk Factors in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 11, 2021 and our subsequent SEC filings. 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.

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Media Contact:Kate ContrerasReal Chemistrykcontreras@realchemistry.com

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

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Cerevel Therapeutics to Report Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - Yahoo Finance

Neuroscience

Charles Lafitte Foundation’s $5 Million Gift Furthers a Shared Goal of Solving Challenges through Innovation – Duke Today

A new $5 million gift from the Charles Lafitte Foundation will bolster Duke Science and Technology, the universitys signature effort to elevate excellence in the sciences, and support students aspirations in pursuing the study of artificial intelligence, fintech, cybersecurity, neuroscience and more.

This is the second major gift to Duke from the family foundation of Duke parents and philanthropists Jeffrey and Suzanne Citron of Hobe Sound, Fla., who donated another $5 million to Duke in 2018.

The largest portion of the gift will endow a new professorship for the Pratt School of Engineering. The Charles Lafitte Foundation Professor of the Practice/Executive in Residence will make it possible for the school to recruit experienced leaders in fields such as fintech, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cryptographic computing to teach engineering students and prepare them for careers in industry-related computing fields.

FinTech and other fields built on cutting edge technology evolve at a rate faster than traditional academic practices can support,said Jeffrey Citron, founder of the foundation and high-speed Internet and broadband device company Vonage. Providing students direct access to industry leaders will not only serve to educate them in the academic sense but will enable them to be an active part of developing future innovations. Innovative solutions and change are essential elements of the Charles Lafitte Foundation and partnering with Duke to endow this professorship will ensure the foundation can continue achieving our mission in perpetuity.

The gift also enables the Pratt School to hire an expert to serve as a liaison with the universitys Office of Research and Innovation. The goal is to accelerate new discoveries and create new companies, therapies and products in part by building fruitful collaborations with corporate partners.

Further, the gift will help create a big-tech internship training program, will expand offerings of advanced courses that align with the needs of big-tech firms and will give students the practical knowledge to apply their skills to industry-focused challenges.

We know one of the great strengths of a Duke education is putting students in direct contact with experts who can help them take their next steps, said Jeff Glass, interim dean of engineering. By enabling us to recruit thought leaders and connect students with industry partners in cutting-edge tech fields, the Citrons gift will help shape the next great innovators and entrepreneurs at Duke.

As part of the gift, the Citrons also renewed $2.3 million of wide-ranging funding from their foundations 2018 gift. This includes $750,000 added to its endowed incubation fund to support turning ideas into solutions to societys challenges. Another $750,000 adds to the Charles Lafitte Foundation Program in Psychological Research, which gives seed grants for research by faculty, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates through the Psychology & Neuroscience department.

In addition to Duke University, the Charles Lafitte Foundation supports organizations working in the fields of education, childrens advocacy, medical research and issues, and the arts and underwrites programs it feels can become self-sustaining with long-term commitment and measurable impact.

Support from the Charles Lafitte Foundation has provided new opportunities for action, said Scott Huettel, chair of Psychology & Neuroscience. Our students and faculty have sparked new projects on topics from how COVID changes attitudes toward risks to how identity shapes individual social behavior. They have risen to the challenge of the times by doing research that matters not only for the advancement of science, but also for the advancement of our society. We are extraordinarily grateful that the Foundation believes in the value of that research.

Additional Duke support renewed by the foundation included operating gifts to the Annual Funds of the Pratt School of Engineering, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Jewish Life at Duke and Duke Gardens.

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Charles Lafitte Foundation's $5 Million Gift Furthers a Shared Goal of Solving Challenges through Innovation - Duke Today