Mad Cow Disease News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Sustained in the Brain: How Lasting Emotions Arise from Brief Stimuli, in Humans and Mice

May 29, 2025 — Humans and mice share persistent brain-activity patterns in response to adverse sensory experience, scientists find, opening a window to our emotions and, perhaps, neuropsychiatric ...

Scientists Design Gene Delivery Systems for Cells in the Brain and Spinal Cord

May 21, 2025 — Research teams have created a versatile set of gene delivery systems that can reach different neural cell types in the human brain and spinal cord with exceptional accuracy. These delivery systems ...

Gene Circuits Enable More Precise Control of Gene Therapy

May 1, 2025 — To help achieve more precise control of gene therapy, engineers have designed a new control circuit that can keep gene expression levels within a target range. The method could be used to deliver genes that could help treat diseases including ...

First Synthetic 'Mini Prion' Shows How Protein Misfolding Multiplies

Apr. 30, 2025 — Prions transmit their abnormally folded shape onto other proteins. Researchers designed a synthetic fragment of the tau protein that exhibits prion-like behavior. Misfolded tau proteins are the hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases, including ...

AI Helps Unravel a Cause of Alzheimer's Disease and Identify a Therapeutic Candidate

Apr. 25, 2025 — A new study found that a gene recently recognized as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease is actually a cause of it, due to its previously unknown secondary function that triggers a pathway that ...

AI Models of the Brain Could Serve as 'Digital Twins' in Research

Apr. 11, 2025 — In a new study, researchers created an AI model of the mouse visual cortex that predicts neuronal responses to visual ...

Boosting Brain's Waste Removal System Improves Memory in Old Mice

Mar. 21, 2025 — Aging compromises the lymphatic vessels surrounding the brain, disabling waste drainage from the brain and impacting cognitive function. Researchers boosted lymphatic vessel integrity in old mice and found improvements in their memory compared with ...

New AI Model Measures How Fast the Brain Ages

Feb. 24, 2025 — A new artificial intelligence model measures how fast a patient's brain is aging and could be a powerful new tool for understanding, preventing and treating cognitive decline and ...

Gene Therapy for Rare Epilepsy Shows Promise in Mice

Feb. 16, 2025 — Recent research takes aim at the a variant in gene SCN1B, which causes a severe form of developmental epileptic ...

Mystery Solved: New Study Reveals How DNA Repair Genes Play a Major Role in Huntington's Disease

Feb. 11, 2025 — A new study has discovered in mouse models that genes associated with repairing mismatched DNA are critical in eliciting damages to neurons that are most vulnerable in Huntington's disease and ...

How Your Brain Learns from Rewards Might Hold the Key to Treating Depression

Jan. 22, 2025 — Using computational models, the researchers studied how the brain's reward-learning system functions in those with depression, especially among individuals experiencing anhedonia, the inability to ...

Study Finds Surprising Way That Genetic Mutation Causes Huntington's Disease, Transforming Understanding of the Disorder

Jan. 17, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a surprising mechanism by which the inherited genetic mutation known to cause Huntington's disease leads to the death of brain cells. The findings change the understanding ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:19pm EDT

Fatal Neurodegenerative Disease in Kids Also Affects the Bowel

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have described the neurodegeneration that occurs in the nervous system of the bowel in Batten disease, a rare and fatal genetic condition. In their latest study, a team showed that gene ...

Gene Editing Extends Lifespan in Mouse Model of Prion Disease

Jan. 14, 2025 — Researchers have developed a gene-editing treatment for prion disease that extends lifespan by about 50 percent in a mouse model of the fatal neurodegenerative condition. The treatment, which uses ...

Human 'Domainome' Reveals Root Cause of Heritable Disease

Jan. 8, 2025 — Unstable proteins are the main drivers of many different heritable diseases, according to a new study, including genetic disorders responsible for the formation of cataracts, and different types of ...

Neurodegenerative Diseases: Membrane Anchor Suppresses Protein Aggregation

Jan. 6, 2025 — Protein aggregation is typical of various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. A research team has now used new in vitro ...

Research on Neurodegeneration in Spider Brain Leads Neuroscientists to Groundbreaking New Discovery in Alzheimer's-Affected Human Brains

Dec. 3, 2024 — What do spiders and Alzheimer's disease have in common? A team of researchers may have just uncovered the answer. Researchers from have made a ...

Huntington's Disease Gene Also Enhances Early Brain Development and Intelligence, Study Finds

Nov. 15, 2024 — The Huntington's disease (HD) mutation eventually causes a fatal brain disease in adulthood, but a new study finds that early in life, children with ...

Finding a Missing Piece for Neurodegenerative Disease Research

Nov. 3, 2024 — Research has provided compelling evidence that could solve a fundamental mystery in the makeup of fibrils that play a role in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative ...

Researchers Solve Medical Mystery of Neurological Symptoms in Kids

Nov. 1, 2024 — A team of doctors and scientists have identified the cause of a rare disorder involving intellectual disability and brain malformations. The team found a link between the child's neurological ...

Human Proteins Identified That Explain Inter-Individual Differences in Functional Brain Connectivity

Nov. 1, 2024 — A long-standing goal of neuroscience is to understand how molecules and cellular structures on a microscale give rise to communication between brain ...

'Human Mini-Brains' Reveal Autism Biology and Potential Treatments

Oct. 24, 2024 — By creating personalized brain 'organoids' in the lab, scientists showed how microRNAs impact brain development, and demonstrate how one drug can reverse critical cellular signs of ...

Simple Ways to Improve the Wellbeing of Pediatric Critical Care Staff

Jan. 28, 2025 — Researchers have developed two simple, easy-to-deliver sessions to improve the wellbeing of staff in pediatric critical care (PCC) units in UK ...

Zebrafish as a Model for Studying Rare Genetic Disease

Oct. 16, 2024 — Nager syndrome (NS) is an extremely rare disease that causes developmental problems and anomalies in facial bone structures and limbs. While the causative gene is known, its underlying mechanisms ...

Large-Scale Study of Children With Genetic Disorders Finds Huge Benefit of Diagnosis

Oct. 15, 2024 — Genetic results from the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) study have enabled thousands of children with severe developmental disorders to receive better ...

Alzheimer's Disease May Damage the Brain in Two Phases

Oct. 15, 2024 — Alzheimer's disease may damage the brain in two distinct phases, based on new research using sophisticated brain mapping tools. According to researchers who discovered this new view, the first, ...

Heart Failure, Atrial Fibrillation and Coronary Heart Disease Linked to Cognitive Impairment

Oct. 10, 2024 — A new American Heart Association scientific statement suggests addressing cardiovascular health earlier in life may reduce the risk of stroke and help preserve thinking and memory later in ...

New Study Suggest Treatments That Maintain the Health of Synapses May Help Prevent, Mitigate the Symptoms of Prion Disease

Sep. 27, 2024 — The most common cause of inherited prion diseases is the E200K mutation of the prion protein (PrP). It is often thought that this mutation causes disease by making PrP more susceptible to misfolding ...

New Therapy That Targets and Destroys Tau Tangles Is a Promising Future Alzheimer's Disease Treatment

Sep. 16, 2024 — Scientists have developed new potential therapies that selectively remove aggregated tau proteins, which are associated with Alzheimer's disease, and improve symptoms of neurodegeneration in ...

A New Culprit in Huntington's Disease

Aug. 22, 2024 — Researchers have implicated a new gene in the progression of Huntington's disease in a brain organoid model. The gene may contribute to brain abnormalities much earlier than previously ...

Taking a 'One in a Million' Shot to Tackle Dopamine-Linked Brain Disorders

Aug. 12, 2024 — With the help of a tiny, transparent worm called Caenorhabditis elegans, researchers have identified novel players in dopamine signaling by taking advantage of a powerful platform generated via the ...

Noninvasive Measurement of Gene Expression at Target Locations in the Brain

Aug. 7, 2024 — Bioengineers have developed a noninvasive tool to measure gene expression and gene therapy delivery in specific brain regions using ...

Genetic 'Episignatures' Guide Researchers in Identifying Causes of Unsolved Epileptic Neurological Disorders

Aug. 6, 2024 — Scientists use DNA methylation patterns as a roadmap for identifying causes of severe epilepsies in ...

Study Across Multiple Brain Regions Discerns Alzheimer's Vulnerability and Resilience Factors

July 24, 2024 — Genomics and lab studies reveal numerous findings, including a key role for Reelin amid neuronal vulnerability, and for choline and antioxidants in sustaining ...

Protein Droplets Likely Don't Cause Parkinson's

July 15, 2024 — Liquid-liquid phase separation is not a precursor to formation of amyloid fibrils, a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease, shows study. Rather, the formation of protein into liquid ...

With Gene Editing, Mice With a Form of Inherited Deafness Can Hear Again

July 12, 2024 — Researchers have used gene editing to restore hearing in adult mice with a type of inherited hearing loss. They showed that shutting down a damaged copy of a gene called a microRNA (miRNA) enabled ...

Molecular Atlas of Blood Vessel Pathways in the Human Brain, Across Early Brain Development, Adulthood and Disease

July 10, 2024 — Researchers have built the first-ever molecular atlas of the human brain vasculature at single-cell resolution, spanning from early development to adulthood and through disease stages such as brain ...

Study Reveals Significant Differences in RNA Editing Between Postmortem and Living Human Brain

June 28, 2024 — Researchers have reported finding major differences between postmortem and living prefrontal cortex brain tissues as they relate to one of the most abundant RNA modifications in the brain, known as ...

New Weapon Against Dementia

May 22, 2024 — The clumping of proteins is at the root of a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders that affect the brain such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Researchers have now developed a new tool that can ...

Brain 'Assembloids' Mimic Human Blood-Brain Barrier

May 20, 2024 — Major advance promises to accelerate the understanding and improved treatment of a wide range of brain disorders, including stroke, cerebral vascular disorders, brain cancer, Alzheimer's ...

New Gene Delivery Vehicle Shows Promise for Human Brain Gene Therapy

May 16, 2024 — In an important step toward more effective gene therapies for brain diseases, researchers have engineered a gene-delivery vehicle that uses a human protein to efficiently cross the blood-brain ...

Drug Compounds to Combat Neurodegenerative Diseases

May 15, 2024 — Prions are the abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins. Prion disease is an umbrella term for a group of fatal ...