Embryology

Biden Believes in Science So Long as the Teachers Unions Approve – National Review

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visit Yorktown Elementary School in Yorktown, Va., May 3, 2021.(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Democrats love to claim that they stand against political interference in science.

This is often an oversimplified understanding of how science and technology interact with government. Decisions about public-health policy or energy policy almost invariably entail the sorts of competing priorities that should involve the peoples democratically elected representatives. We do not live in a dictatorship robed in white lab coats. It is also wildly hypocritical. Democrats are not against politics in science only against politics they do not like. A glance at their treatment of embryology, biological sex, or nuclear power is proof enough of that. The latest example comes from evidence of the Biden administration allowing the Centers for Disease Controls guidance on school reopening to be influenced by one of the nations largest teachers unions.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden and his political and media allies leaned hard on the argument that the Trump administration was using undue political influence to disregard science. Biden was the first presidential candidate endorsed by Scientific American in its 175-year history. In Bidens convention speech, he declared, Decency, science, democracy. They are all on the ballot. In October, he tweeted, I believe in science. Donald Trump doesnt. Its that simple, folks. In January, announcing his science advisers, Biden proclaimed, Were going to lead with science and truth a line intended and received as an attack on the Trump administration. One of his first executive orders declared it the policy of my Administration to listen to the science. His CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, claimed that Trump muzzled scientists. Kamala Harris recently tweeted, I am proud that science is back in the White House. Bidens Office of Science and Technology Policy has even instituted an investigation into what it calls its predecessors blatant attempts to distort, to cherry pick and disregard science.

One of the specific charges against the Trump administration was that White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas had intervened in shaping the language of CDC reports during the pandemic. Biden ally Representative James Clyburn thundered that this amounted to political interference in the nations public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, overruling and bullying scientists and making harmful decisions that allowed the virus to spread more rapidly.

The Biden-Harris campaign even stoked irresponsible fears that a COVID vaccine developed by pharmaceutical companies and cleared by the regulatory bureaucracy would be unsafe if it was announced by the Trump White House. As Harris declared in the vice presidential debate, If Donald Trump tells us to take it, Im not taking it.

Given all of this rhetorical high dudgeon, voters might reasonably expect this administration to be purer than Caesars wife on the specific issue of the CDCs pronouncements on the COVID pandemic. Any voter who believed that should be sadly disappointed.

In February, Dr. Walensky told the press that there were increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated. Press Secretary Jen Psaki immediately backtracked, telling reporters that Walensky was speaking in her personal capacity and that there was no official guidance from the CDC yet on the vaccination of teachers and what would be needed to ensure the safe reopening of schools. This despite extensive evidence, even from CDC studies, that it was safe for schools to fully reopen. The CDC ignored that evidence in releasing its guidelines in March, insisting that schools should generally be closed or partly virtual when community spread is high and the school doesnt have routine testing a standard that would be failed in 90 percent of the country at the time, under the agencys definition of high spread. A group of doctors who conducted a study of school districts in Wood County, Wis., even publicly accused the CDC of misrepresenting their research. The administration also intervened to block the CDC from revising its guidelines on travel to allow for travel by people who have been fully vaccinated.

Now, a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, reported by the New York Post, reveals the depth of political interference in the school-reopening guidance. The powerful American Federation of Teachers, which spent nearly $20 million to elect Democrats in 2020, was deeply involved in crafting the CDC guidance. One AFT email to officials in the Biden White House said: We were able to review a copy of the draft guidance document over the weekend and were able to provide some initial feedback to several staff this morning about possible ways to strengthen the document. This and other AFT emails to the White House were then forwarded to Walensky by the White House, lest she miss the point of who was calling the shots. The AFT also leaned on Walensky directly, and AFT president Randi Weingarten lobbied her by phone. As a result, the Post noted at least two instances of AFT-drafted language being inserted verbatim into the CDC guidelines, in each case to limit in-person instruction.

Many Americans have had their eyes opened during the past year to the lengths to which the teachers unions will go in placing the interests of their members ahead of the interests of children. Now, they can see the Biden administration bending the CDC itself to the unions will. Whatever this is, it is not science.

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Biden Believes in Science So Long as the Teachers Unions Approve - National Review

Neuroscience

LCMC Health Neuroscience Institute created at WJMC New Orleans CityBusiness – New Orleans CityBusiness

LCMC Health has established a Neuroscience Institute at West Jefferson Medical Center.

A news release describes the Institute as the first of its kind in the Gulf South, with a team of physicians, researchers and educators collaborating to help people suffering from conditions such asParkinsons, stroke, brain tumor, or back and spine conditions.

The Institute is partnering with the Culicchia Neurological Clinic, which has been part of West Jefferson for 60 years specializing in a wide array of disorders affecting the nervous system and spine. The two entities will share a newly designed, state-of-the-art facility on the 6th and 7th floors of the South Tower of WJMC. A staircase and elevator will connect the floors for ease of access for patients who will also benefit from an expanded waiting room and modern finishes creating a more comfortable experience for patients and their families, the release said.

Multiple specialties will be available to patients at one location, such as neurology, neurosurgery, neurointerventional radiology, neurorehabilitation, neuro-oncology, neuro-otology, neurocritical care, stroke care, spine care and more.

The hospital on the West Bank has had other additions over the past several months as part of $90 million in renovations and expansion projects,including the completion of a new Outpatient Surgery Center, physician clinics entry, endoscopy department, emergency department and a new main hospital entrance.

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LCMC Health Neuroscience Institute created at WJMC New Orleans CityBusiness - New Orleans CityBusiness

Neuroscience

Thesis by Krotinger ’19 Published in PLOUS ONE – Wesleyan Connection

Anna Krotinger 19 wrote an undergraduate thesis examining a dance intervention for Parkinsons disease (PD) and underlying cognitive mechanisms relating to rhythm that was published on May 6 at the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Krotingers thesis, titled Rhythm and groove as cognitive mechanisms of dance intervention in Parkinsons disease, builds off her studies in neuroscience and behavior, in which she majored at Wesleyan.

Music and dance encourage spontaneous rhythmic coupling between sensory and motor systems; this has inspired the development of dance programs for PD, the abstract reads. Here we assessed the therapeutic outcome and some underlying cognitive mechanisms of dance classes for PD, as measured by neuropsychological assessments of disease severity as well as quantitative assessments of rhythmic ability and sensorimotor experience.

Tags:alumni publications Class of 2019 Neuroscience

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Thesis by Krotinger '19 Published in PLOUS ONE - Wesleyan Connection

Neuroscience

Cognitive problems caused by repetitive and mild blows to the head could be treated, study suggests – News-Medical.Net

A neurologic pathway by which non-damaging but high frequency brain impact blunts normal brain function and causes long-term problems with learning and memory has been identified. The finding suggests that tailored drug therapy can be designed and developed to reactivate and normalize cognitive function, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center.

The investigators, working with collaborators at the National Institutes of Health, had previously found that infrequent mild head impacts did not have an effect on learning and memory, but in their new study, reported May 10 in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22744-6), the investigators found that when the frequency of these non-damaging head impacts are increased, the brain adapts and changes how it functions. The investigators have found the molecular pathway responsible for this down-tuning of the brain that can prevent this adaptation from occurring.

This study is the first to offer a detailed molecular analysis of what happens in the brain after highly repetitive and very mild blows to the head, using mice as an animal model, says the study's senior investigator, Mark Burns, PhD, an associate professor in Georgetown's Department of Neuroscience and head of the Laboratory for Brain Injury and Dementia.

"Most research in this area has been in mouse models with more severe brain injury, or in human brains with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)," he says. CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive head impact. "This means that we have been focusing only on how CTE pathology develops. Our goal was to understand how the brain changes in response to the low-level head impacts that many young football players, for example, are regularly experiencing."

Researchers have found that the average high school and college football player receives 21 head impacts per week, while some specialized players, such as defensive ends, experience twice as many. Behavioral issues believed to come from head impact have been reported in athletes with exposure to repeated head impacts. Issues range from mild learning and memory deficits to behavioral changes that include aggression, impulsivity and sleep disorders.

These findings represent a message of hope to athletes and their families who worry that a change in behavior and memory means that CTE is in their future."

Mark Burns, PhD, Study's Senior Investigator

In this study with mice, researchers mimicked the mild head impacts experienced by football players. The mice showed slower learning and impaired memory recall at timepoints long after the head impacts had stopped. After the experiment, a detailed analysis of their brains showed that there was no inflammation or tau pathology, as is usually seen in the brains of brain trauma or people with CTE.

To understand the physiology underlying these memory changes, the study's co-first author, Bevan Main, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience at Georgetown, conducted RNA sequencing of the brain. "There are many things that this type of analysis can point you to, such as issues with energy usage or CTE-like pathways being activated in nerve cells, and so on," Main says. "All of our sequencing studies kept pointing to the same thing - the synapses that provide communication between neurons."

The next step was to figure out how synaptic function was altered. Stephanie Sloley, PhD, a graduate of Georgetown's Interdisciplinary Program for Neuroscience and the study's other first co-author, conducted electrophysiology studies of different neurons charged with releasing varied neurotransmitters - chemicals passed between neurons, via synapses, that carry functional instructions. "The brain is wired via synaptic communication pathways, and while we found that these wires were intact, the way that they communicated using glutamate was blunted, repressed," says Sloley.

Glutamate is the most abundant neurotransmitter in the brain, and is found in more than 60% of brain synapses. It plays a role in synaptic plasticity, which is the way the brain strengthens or weaken signals between neurons over time to shape learning and memory.

"Glutamate is usually very tightly regulated in the brain, but we know that head impacts cause a burst of glutamate to be released. We believe that brain is adapting to the repeated bursts of glutamate caused by high frequency head impact, and dampens its normal response to glutamate, perhaps as a way to protect the neurons," explains Sloley. She found that there was a shift in the way that neurons detected and responded to glutamate release, which reduced the neurons ability to learn new information.

With a single head hit or infrequent hits, the synapses do not go through this readjustment, Burns says. But after only a week of frequent mild hits, glutamate detection remained blunted for at least a month after the impacts ended. The affected mice showed deficits in learning and memory, compared to a placebo group of animals.

The authors confirmed that the changes in cognition were due to glutamate by giving a group of mice a drug to block glutamate transmission before they experienced the series of head knocks. This drug is FDA-approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Despite being exposed to the hits, these mice did not develop adaptations in their synapses or neurotransmission, and did not develop cognitive problems.

"This tells us that the cognitive issues we see in our head impact mice are occurring due to a change in the way the brain is working, and not because we have irreparable brain damage or CTE," Main says. "It would be very unlikely that we would use a drug like this in young players as a neuroprotectant before they play sports, because not all players will develop cognitive disorders," he says. "More much likely is that we can use our findings to develop treatments that target the synapses and reverse this condition. That work is already underway"

Burns believes that CTE and this newly discovered mechanism is different. "I believe that CTE is a real concern for athletes exposed to head impact, but I also believe that our newly discovered communication issue is independent of CTE. While it is concerning that head impacts can change the way the brain works, this study reveals that learning and memory deficits after repeated head impacts do not automatically mean a future with an untreatable neurodegenerative disease."

Source:

Journal reference:

Sloley, S.S., et al. (2021) High-frequency head impact causes chronic synaptic adaptation and long-term cognitive impairment in mice. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22744-6.

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Cognitive problems caused by repetitive and mild blows to the head could be treated, study suggests - News-Medical.Net

Neuroscience

The Neuroscience Market To Witness A Spike Amidst Entry Of New Players The Courier – The Courier

The Neuroscience Market report tabled by Persistence Market Research focuses on the parameters of the 4th industrial revolution, which includes technology-driven healthcare solutions, with several breakthroughs in this regard. The entire supply chain right from diagnostics to the delivery of medicines, is being driven by the technological advancements in healthcare.

With healthy CAGR of 6.4%, theglobalneuroscience marketis likely to grow from US$ 301.6 Mn in 2016 to US$ 520.8 Mn by 2025 end. This growth is mainly fuelled by advancement in neuroimaging and increasing R & D in neuroinformatics. Neuroscience Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016)and Forecast (2017-2025),is the new publication of Persistence Market Research that focuses on merger and acquisition, strategic collaborations and technology, and technology transfer agreements, which play a vital role in the global neuroscience market.

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Company Profiles

North America and Europe are expected to dominate the global neuroscience market in the assessed period of 8-years that is between 2017 and 2025.

Global Neuroscience Market: Relevance and Impact of Factors

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Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Component Type

On the basis of component type, the global neuroscience market is segmented into instrument, software and services. Instrument segmented is sub-segmented into MRI imaging systems and neuromicroscopy, while services segmented divided into consulting services, installation services and maintenance services.

Instrument segment dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. Instrument segment is the most attractive segment, with attractiveness index of 2.6 over the forecast period.

Instrument segment was valued atUS$ 221.6 Mnin 2016 and is projected to be valued atUS$ 408.1 Mn in 2025growing at aCAGR of 7.2%during the forecast period. This segment is expected to accounts for high revenue contribution to the global neuroscience market as compared to software and services segments over the forecast period.

Software segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of0.3 duringthe forecast period. This segment was accounted for 15.4% value share in 2017 which is expected to drop down to 12.9 % revenue share in 2025.

Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by End User

On the basis of end user, global neuroscience market is segmented into hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, research institutes, and academic institutes.

Diagnostics laboratory segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global neuroscience market by 2025 end. However, in terms of CAGR and revenue share, hospitals segment is expected to lead he market throughout the estimated period. In 2025, hospital segment is likely to grab 40.2% market share in 2025, expanding at a robustCAGR of 7.3%during the estimated period.

Research institutes segment is expected to be the least attractive segment in the global neuroscience market, with attractiveness index of 0.7 during the forecast period.

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Global Neuroscience Market: Forecast by Region

On the basis of region, global neuroscience market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA. North America dominated the global neuroscience market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period.

North America is projected to be the most attractive market with attractiveness index of 2.3 during the forecast period. Europe is expected to be the second most lucrative market, with attractiveness index of 1.1 respectively during the forecast period.

Europe Neuroscience market accounted for 23.9% share in 2017 and is projected to account for 23.1% share by 2025 end.

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Persistence Market Research (PMR), as a 3rd-party research organization, does operate through an exclusive amalgamation of market research and data analytics for helping businesses ride high, irrespective of the turbulence faced on the account of financial/natural crunches.

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Persistence Market ResearchAddress 305 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York City, NY 10007 United StatesU.S. Ph. +1-646-568-7751USA-Canada Toll-free +1 800-961-0353Sales sales@persistencemarketresearch.com

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The Neuroscience Market To Witness A Spike Amidst Entry Of New Players The Courier - The Courier

Neuroscience

Biogen and Capsigen Announce Collaboration to Discover and Develop Novel AAV Capsids for Targeted CNS and Neuromuscular Disorders – BioSpace

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and VANCOUVER, Wash., May 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biogen Inc.(Nasdaq: BIIB) and Capsigen Inc. announced today that they have entered into a strategic research collaboration to engineer novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids that have the potential to deliver transformative gene therapies that address the underlying genetic causes of various CNS and neuromuscular disorders.

As a part of the collaboration, Capsigens proprietary TRADE platform and associated technologies will be utilized with the aim to create and identify novel AAV capsids tailored to meet disease-specific transduction profiles. Capsids are the protein coat that protects and facilitates delivery of the virus genetic payload into host cells. The collaboration will leverage Capsigens capsid engineering expertise and Biogens discovery, development, manufacturing and commercialization capabilities with the goal to accelerate delivery of gene therapies to patients in need.

Through this collaboration, we aim to solve key technological challenges in the delivery of gene therapies to target tissues. One of our priorities for technology innovation is the discovery of AAV capsids with improved delivery profiles, said Alfred Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Head of Research and Development at Biogen. We are investing for the long-term by building platform capabilities and advanced manufacturing technologies with the goal of accelerating our efforts in gene therapy.

At Capsigen, we believe the next revolution in gene therapy will be driven by engineered AAV capsids designed to meet disease-specific transduction profiles, said John Bial, Chief Executive Officer. Biogen is a leader in neuroscience, and we are excited for the opportunity to work with them to potentially bring new treatments to patients. This collaboration is consistent with our strategy to work with world-class companies to develop the next generation of gene therapies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Capsigen will apply its vector engineering approaches to develop novel capsids designed to meet highly customized, disease-specific transduction profiles. Biogen will receive an exclusive license under Capsigens proprietary technology for an undisclosed number of CNS and neuromuscular disease targets. Capsigen will receive a $15 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $42 million in potential research milestones and up to an additional $1.25 billion in potential development and commercial payments should the collaboration programs achieve certain developmental milestones and sales thresholds. Capsigen is also eligible to receive royalties on future net sales of products that incorporate capsids resulting from the collaboration.

About Biogen At Biogen, our mission is clear: we are pioneers in neuroscience. Biogen discovers, develops and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases as well as related therapeutic adjacencies. One of the worlds first global biotechnology companies, Biogen was founded in 1978 by Charles Weissmann, Heinz Schaller, Kenneth Murray and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp. Today Biogen has the leading portfolio of medicines to treat multiple sclerosis, has introduced the first approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, commercializes biosimilars of advanced biologics and is focused on advancing research programs in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology, Alzheimers disease and dementia, neuromuscular disorders, movement disorders, ophthalmology, neuropsychiatry, immunology, acute neurology and neuropathic pain.

We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at http://www.biogen.com. Follow us on social media Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube.

About CapsigenAt Capsigen, were developing the next generation of AAV vectors to fuel the gene therapy needs of the future. Our end-to-end platform employs customized, highly diverse libraries using the most clinically relevant models and routes of administration. Our proprietary TRADE technology eliminates background and employs novel selection strategies to identify only those vectors which are fully functional and meet the disease-specific transduction criteria of interest. The final results are fit-for-purpose vectors designed to deliver the highest level of clinical utility in a rapid and high-throughput manner.

Biogen Safe HarborThis news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, relating to the potential benefits and results that may be achieved through Biogens collaboration with Capsigen; the potential benefits of Capsigens TRADE platform; the potential of Biogens commercial business and pipeline programs; Biogens strategy and plans; the potential treatment of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases; and risks and uncertainties associated with drug development and commercialization. These forward-looking statements may be accompanied by words such as aim, anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, forecast, intend, may, plan, potential, possible, will, would and other words and terms of similar meaning. Drug development and commercialization involve a high degree of risk, and only a small number of research and development programs result in commercialization of a product. Results in early-stage clinical trials may not be indicative of full results or results from later stage or larger scale clinical trials and do not ensure regulatory approval. You should not place undue reliance on these statements or the scientific data presented.

These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such statements, including without limitation, uncertainty as to whether the anticipated benefits of the collaboration can be achieved; risks of unexpected costs or delays or other unexpected hurdles; uncertainty of success in the development of potential gene therapies, which may be impacted by, among other things, unexpected concerns that may arise from additional data or analysis, the occurrence of adverse safety events, failure to obtain regulatory approvals in certain jurisdictions, failure to protect and enforce data, intellectual property and other proprietary rights and uncertainties relating to intellectual property claims and challenges; the direct and indirect impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on Biogens business, results of operations and financial condition; product liability claims; and third party collaboration risks. The foregoing sets forth many, but not all, of the factors that could cause actual results to differ from Biogens expectations in any forward-looking statement. Investors should consider this cautionary statement as well as the risk factors identified in Biogens most recent annual or quarterly report and in other reports Biogen has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on Biogens current beliefs and expectations and speak only as of the date of this news release. Biogen does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

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Neuroscience

Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator team advances to finals for $500000 xTechBOLT prize – Vanderbilt University News

By Jenna Somers

During battle, many soldiers who become wounded find themselves at the mercy of another soldiers medical training, hoping beyond hope that the soldier administering aid will remember their training well enough to save the wounded soldiers life. Under such duress, recalling the details of medical training could be difficult, and the failure of memory lethal.

But what if there were a way to augment brain function for improved medical learning retention? A transdisciplinary team from Vanderbilt, Soterix Medical and the U.S. Army is collaborating to answer that question. Recently, the team advanced to the finals of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Commands xTechBrain Operant Learning TechnologyxTechBOLTprize competition, where they will compete in November with four other teams for the $500,000 first-place prize.

Promoting high-risk, high-reward research in memory retention is the goal of the competition, and the Vanderbilt teams expertise in educational neuroscience, industry innovation and military needs may prove to be the winning combination. Their interdisciplinary collaboration stems from the 2020 Trans-institutional Programs (TIPs) initiative award, Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator for Discovering Research-Based Solutions (VRA), which supports research at the School of Engineering, College of Arts and Science, Peabody College, School of MedicineClinical, and Owen Graduate School of Management. As the first university to sign an Educational Partnership Agreement with the Army Futures Command, Vanderbilt is a leader in soldier-inspired innovation, and the work of the xTechBOLT team is the latest example of that leadership.

Led by Katherine Aboud, postdoctoral fellow and National Institutes of Health Outstanding Scholar of Neuroscience, and her mentor, Laurie Cutting, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor at Peabody College and a member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, the team is using high-resolution brain data imaging based on research from Cuttings Education and Brain Science Research Lab to develop an individualized, high-definition non-invasive brain stimulation (HD-NIBS) protocol for accelerated medical learning in the classroom. They will then track how medical learning translates to performance on medical simulation tasks. Specifically, they aim to improve performance on the Expert Field Medical Badge Test, the most failed medical test in the Army.

Over the past two decades, my lab has been using multiple neuroimaging modalities, including diffusion tenser imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, in combination with traditional educational approaches to pioneer neural characterization of learning and learning disorders, particularly in the context of language and individual differences in learning, Cutting said. Of particular interest to the [xTechBOLT competition] proposal is the labs groundbreaking work on the role of executive functions and emotional salience on text-based learning, and the neural predictors of these learning outcomes and processes.

The xTechBOLT competition challenges teams to produce a technology that will promote optimal retention and access to memories. The teams software, BRILLIANCE (for Brain tailoRed stImulation protocoL for acceLerated medIcal performance), will allow any non-scientist to facilitate medical learning retention with the click of a button. The software will interpret high-resolution brain data and send targeting information to Soterix Medicals HD-NIBS technology called High-Definition transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (HD-tACS).Placed on a persons scalp, electrodes promote communication between multiple areas of the brain. In the present study, electrodes will target brain areas that are responsible for higher order learning. Ultimately, the team plans to commercialize BRILLIANCE as a non-invasive, individualized brain stimulation software for accelerated medical performance.

Abouds pioneering research catalyzed the collaboration between Vanderbilt and Soterix Medical. A couple of years ago, Aboud read about the application of Soterix Medicals technology to remove age-related differences in memory between typical older and younger adults. Wanting to collaborate with Soterix Medical on learning retention, she opened up a line of communication with Abishek Datta, chief technology officer, co-founder and scientist at Soterix Medical. Like Aboud, he recognized that a collaboration between Vanderbilt and Soterix Medical could potentially enhance learning retention not just for soldiers but for people of all backgrounds.

Importantly, our HD-tACS technology is painless and allows unobtrusive pairing with other tasksfeatures that will undoubtedly help in transitioning this technology to an operational setting in the future, Datta said. Our research and development team will work closely with Vanderbilt University and the U.S. Army teams and leverage our decade-long experience in optimized brain stimulation solutions to achieve our goal of accelerating learning.

Following the proof-of-concept phase, the team plans to test BRILLIANCE on 120 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, who volunteered to participate in the study as members of Vanderbilts Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator. Directed by Doug Adams, Daniel F. Flowers Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator includes soldiers in design processes to ensure that Vanderbilt research and innovation supports their success in training and on the battlefield.

The software being developed by Katherine Aboud, Laurie Cutting, and their team is combining soldiers insights with Vanderbilts trans-institutional capabilities in the neuroscience of learning and industrys capabilities in brain stimulation to develop a state-of-the-art approach for supporting soldier learning and retention, Adams said. This is exactly the kind of high-impact work that the Soldier-Inspired Incubator TIPs is enabling by acquiring instrumentation that our interdisciplinary teams of researchers can use to explore solution concepts with soldiers to address some of the most challenging problems they face.

Vanderbilt also works with Army personnel on campus, such as Lt. Gen. Gary Cheek, director of the Bass Military Scholars Program, and Lt. Col. and Associate Professor of Military Science and Arts and Science Brandon Hulette, who regularly provide guidance to the Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator, including supporting the xTechBOLT prize competition proposal. Additionally, Vanderbilt consultant and former Command Innovation Officer of the Army Futures Command Jay Harrison shared critical insights with the team into the structure of competitions like xTechBOLT and helped shape the final proposal.

I am very excited about our teams cutting-edge work. This mechanism of the xTechBOLT competition allows us to consider a level of scientific and technological innovation that you often cant examine through other mechanisms, Aboud said. Beyond the competition, we could really do a lot of good. If were able to enhance medical learning in a meaningful way, the number of applications of this technology in other educational settings would be incredible. Ultimately, we really want to improve peoples lives by helping our brains learn more effectively.

Contact: Brenda Ellis, 615 343-6314brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu

Posted on Friday, May 7, 2021 in 101st Airborne Division, 2021 xTechBOLT competition, BRILLIANCE, Doug Adams, neuroscience, TIPs,Civil and Environmental Engineering, Home Features, News, News Sidebar, Research

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Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator team advances to finals for $500000 xTechBOLT prize - Vanderbilt University News

Neuroscience

The Link Between Stroke Risk and Infections COVID Included – Baptist Health South Florida

The impact of COVID-19 on a persons risk of a stroke is being intensely researched. But long before the pandemic, it was well-established that viral and bacterial infections can raise a persons stroke risk, in some cases substantially.

Having even common viral or bacterial infections, such as a UTI (urinary tract infection), can be a co-factor in triggering a stroke. The medical literature commonly refers to influenza-like diseases (ILI) when referencing higher stroke risks, especially among adults who already have underlying health issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

Felipe De Los Rios, M.D., medical director of the Stroke Program at Baptist Healths Miami Neuroscience Institute.

This risk of increased stroke with COVID-19 is not unique to COVID-19, explains Felipe De Los Rios, M.D., medical director of the Stroke Program at Baptist Healths Miami Neuroscience Institute. Weve seen this before with a lot of different illnesses. Weve seen it with just urinary infections, other respiratory tract infections, influenza or influenza-like illnesses.

Pre-pandemic studies have indicated that even some adults younger than 45 can have a 9-fold higher stroke risk with influenza-like illnesses. Dr. De Los Rios cautions that its difficult to pinpoint a cause for stroke in younger people with few if any comorbidities, or underlying health issues.

It seems likely that there is a stronger association between COVID as it is with influenza-like illnesses but its difficult to say because you have to correct for lots of other factors, says Dr. De Los Rios.

Infection and Other Risk Factors

Stroke can be caused either by a clot obstructing the flow of blood to the brain (called an ischemic stroke the most common) or by a blood vessel rupturing and preventing blood flow to the brain (called a hemorrhagic stroke). Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States. When a stroke occurs, part of the brain cannot get the blood (and oxygen) it needs, so brain cells die. (May is Stroke Awareness Month).

The top risk factors for stroke are fairly well known: high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, diabetes, high blood cholesterol levels, a diet high in fat (particularly saturated) and salt, and obesity. However, a lesser understood risk factor is infection, which studies have identified as both a potential chronic risk factor and an acute trigger for stroke.

Research presented at the American Stroke Associations International Stroke Conference in 2019 indicated that having a flu-like illness increased the odds of having a stroke by nearly 40 percent over the next 15 days. Several studies have reached similar conclusions long before the COVID pandemic. A separate study in 2019 of over 190,000 stroke patients found that the risk of suffering a stroke was higher in the weeks following any infection that required a trip to an ER or hospitalization. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) showed the strongest link to higher stroke risk.

Infection Pushes Your Body Off Balance

Why do infections increase a persons risk for a stroke? There are many proposed cause-and-effect mechanisms behind the infection-stroke connection, but theres much uncertainty. Researchers suspect a primary mechanism could be excessive inflammation caused by the infection.

Some studies have found that patients with COVID-19 can develop abnormal blood clotting, mostly a result of excessive inflammation. In response to infections, sometimes the body produces an overactive immune response which can lead to increased inflammation. The coronavirus is known to primarily attack the lungs, but it can also affect many other organs, including the blood. This can lead to clot formation.

Dr. De Los Rios says that understanding the impact of an infection on the body comes down to balance. An infection can push your body off balance that is the main point, he says. The more off balance you are, the higher the risk of stroke. Normally, theres this balance in your body between clotting and bleeding so that we dont experience either of them. But if your body is fighting this infection, which is new and may be severe, then your body reacts to it. And in that process of reaction, there can be collateral damage. And part of that collateral damage is a tendency to form clots.

Tags: COVID-19, Miami Neuroscience Institute, National Stroke Awareness Month, stroke

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The Link Between Stroke Risk and Infections COVID Included - Baptist Health South Florida

Neuroscience

Four Penn Faculty: Election to the National Academy of Sciences – UPENN Almanac

Four Penn Faculty: Election to the National Academy of Sciences

Four members of the University of Pennsylvania faculty have been elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS). They join 120 members, 59 of whom are women, the most elected in a single year, and 30 international members, elected by their peers this year to NAS. Recognized for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, this new class brings the total number of active members to 2,461 and of international members to 511.

Marisa Bartolomei is the Perelman Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the department of cell and developmental biology in the Perelman School of Medicine. She is also the co-director of the Penn Epigenetics Institute. Crossing into the disciplines of cell and molecular biology, pharmacology, and neuroscience, Dr. Bartolomei and her lab investigate genomic imprinting in mice. Specifically, they focus on the H19 gene, which is only expressed in maternal alleles, in order to better uncover the mechanisms behind imprinting and the effects of the environment, assisted reproductive technologies, and endocrine disruptors. Her lab also looks into the molecular and genetic systems behind X inactivation in mice. Her research has been published widely in journals including Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Development, and PLoS Genetics.

Michael Kearns is the National Center Professor of Management & Technology in the department of computer and information science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also holds secondary appointments in the School of Arts & Sciences department of economics and the departments of statistics and operations, information and decisions at the Wharton School. He is an expert in machine learning, algorithmic game theory, and microeconomics, and applies both theoretical research and experimental techniques to better understand the social dimensions of new information technology, such as its impact on privacy and fairness. Dr. Kearns is also the founding director of Penns Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences, which draws on researchers from around the University to study some of the most pressing problems of the digital age. Dr. Kearns is also the co-author of The Ethical Algorithm, which shows how seemingly objective data science techniques can produce biased outcomes.

Diana Mutz is the Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication in the Annenberg School for Communication. She also serves as director of the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics; she is also an affiliate of the Warren Center. She studies political communication, political psychology, and public opinion, and her research focuses on how the American mass public relates to the political world and how people form opinions on issues and candidates. She received a 2017 Carnegie Fellowship and a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue research on globalization and public opinion, and in 2011 received the Lifetime Career Achievement Award in Political Communication from the American Political Science Association. In addition to many journal articles, Dr. Mutz is the author of Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes, Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative Versus Participatory Democracy, and In-Your-Face Politics: The Consequences of Uncivil Media.

M. Celeste Simon is the Arthur H. Rubenstein, MB BCh, Professor in the department of cell and developmental biology in the Perelman School of Medicine and the scientific director of The Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. She and her lab research the metabolism of cancer cells, tumor immunology, metastasis, and how healthy cells and cancer cells respond to a lack of oxygen and nutrients. Her work uses both animal models and cancer patient samples, and her goal is to create techniques to treat various tumors like kidney cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, liver cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Simon was the recipient of a National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award in 2017, and she has authored more than 275 articles in journals including Cell, Science, Nature, Cancer Discovery, Nature Genetics, and Cancer Cell.

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Four Penn Faculty: Election to the National Academy of Sciences - UPENN Almanac

Neuroscience

Damage to White Matter Linked to Worse Post-Brain Injury Outcomes – Technology Networks

A new University of Iowa study challenges the idea that gray matter (the neurons that form the cerebral cortex) is more important than white matter (the myelin covered axons that physically connect neuronal regions) when it comes to cognitive health and function. The findings may help neurologists better predict the long-term effects of strokes and other forms of traumatic brain injury.

The most unexpected aspect of our findings was that damage to gray matter hubs of the brain that are really interconnected with other regions didn't really tell us much about how poorly people would do on cognitive tests after brain damage. On the other hand, people with damage to the densest white matter connections did much worse on those tests, explains Justin Reber, PhD, a UI postdoctoral research fellow in psychology and first author on the study. This is important because both scientists and clinicians often focus almost exclusively on the role of gray matter. This study is a reminder that connections between brain regions might matter just as much as those regions themselves, if not more so.

The new study, published in PNAS, analyzes brain scans and cognitive function tests from over 500 people with localized areas of brain damage caused by strokes or other forms of brain injury. Looking at the location of the brain damage, also known as lesions, the UI team led by Reber andAaron Boes, MD, PhD, correlated the level of connectedness of the damaged areas with the level of cognitive disability the patient experienced. The findings suggest that damage to highly connected regions of white matter is more predictive of cognitive impairment than damage to highly connected gray matter hubs.

The UI team used these well accepted mathematical models to identify the location of hubs within both gray and white matter from brain imaging of normal healthy individuals. The researchers then used brain scans from patients with brain lesions to find cases where areas of damage coincided with hubs. Using data from multiple cognitive tests for those patients, they were also able to measure the effect hub damage had on cognitive outcomes. Surprisingly, damage to highly connected gray matter hubs did not have a strong association with poor cognitive outcomes. In contrast, damage to dense white matter hubs was strongly linked to impaired cognition.

The brain isn't a blank canvas where all regions are equivalent; a small lesion in one region of the brain may have very minimal impact on cognition, whereas another one may have a huge impact. These findings might help us better predict, based on the location of the damage, which patients are at risk for cognitive impairment after stroke or other brain injury, says Boes, UI professor of pediatrics, neurology, and psychiatry, and a member of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute. It's better to know those things in advance as it gives patients and family members a more realistic prognosis and helps target rehabilitation more effectively.

Reber notes that the study also illustrates the value of working with clinical patients as well as healthy individuals in terms of understanding relationships between brain structure and function.

There is a lot of really excellent research using functional brain imaging with healthy participants or computer simulations that tell us that these gray matter hubs are critical to how the brain works, and that you can use them to predict how well healthy people will perform on cognitive tests. But when we look at how strokes and other brain damage actually affect people, it turns out that you can predict much more from damage to white matter, he says. Research with people who have survived strokes or other brain damage is messy, complicated, and absolutely essential, because it builds a bridge between basic scientific theory and clinical practice, and it can improve both.

I cannot stress enough how grateful we are that these patients have volunteered their time to help us; without them, a lot of important research would be impossible, he adds.

Reference: Reber J, Hwang K, Bowren M, et al. Cognitive impairment after focal brain lesions is better predicted by damage to structural than functional network hubs. PNAS. 2021;118(19). doi:10.1073/pnas.2018784118

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Damage to White Matter Linked to Worse Post-Brain Injury Outcomes - Technology Networks