neuroscience

Dr. David Sabatini, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist and associate director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, earned the 2018 Switzer Prize for his research into influences on cell growth.

UCLA’s Dr. Michael Gandal said that beyond the important new findings, he is even more optimistic about what the data will help researchers learn in the future.

The study is the most comprehensive published effort to date to identify the source of neurodegeneration across species.

Researchers found that lower activity of an enzyme that helps maintain cells’ health along with DNA damage were associated with worse cognitive performance, such as attention and motor skills.

The life scientists have provided the first cell “atlas” of the hippocampus — the part of the brain that helps regulate learning and memory — when it is affected by traumatic brain injury.

A UCLA mouse model could deepen understanding of the same diseases, such as anxiety disorders, in children.

The $3.7 million, three-year grant will go toward research aimed to develop imaging technology that allows the recording of tens of thousands of neurons to better understand how the brain goes awry in disease.

The research by Dr. Lin Jiang and his team included findings from computer software that assisted them in the drug selection process.

A pioneer in her field, Dr. Linda Liau is only the second woman in the nation — and the first Asian-American woman — to chair an academic department of neurosurgery.

Neuroscientist Jack Feldman will explain the importance of the connections between breathing and the brain as he delivers UCLA’s 125th Faculty Research Lecture.

The genetic technique is a step toward a strategy to help people with autism better process visual information.

The idea for the project began 20 years ago, when UCLA professor Anne Andrews was researching serotonin and realized that the then-state-of-the-art methods for monitoring neurochemicals couldn’t provide data with sufficient quality.

Mark Pollock and his partner, Simone George, met UCLA’s Reggie Edgerton and discarded advice from doctors who had discouraged their pursuit of a cure.

Findings from a UCLA-led study may ultimately lead to new ways to treat psychiatric disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder, at their root.

Many patients and doctors are unaware how new therapies can improve quality of life.

Findings from the UCLA study could lead to new treatments for patients.

The findings open the door to future study about whether specific interventions, such as changes to diet, could affect brain function and thus affect the desire to overeat or to eat when not hungry.

Dr. Daniel Lu, the study’s lead author, said the benefit lasted for two to four weeks, suggesting that the spinal cord’s neural circuitry retains a ‘memory’ of the treatment.

The findings may eventually lead to researchers discovering a new way to control the proteins found at synapses and, in turn, treat diseases characterized by synaptic dysfunction.

The finding in animals could support the first blood test to speed diagnosis and improve treatment in humans.

Neurophysicist Mayank Mehta’s work has implications for diagnosing and treating neurological diseases.

UCLA researchers studied FDDNP, a molecular tracer that binds with proteins called tau and amyloid, and which indicates the location and extent of abnormal proteins in the brain.

Two discoveries — one in the brains of people with heroin addiction and the other in the brains of sleepy mice — shed light on chemical messengers that regulate sleep and addiction, UCLA researchers say.

The research “may reassure some people that despite testing positive on screening tests, their chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia is low,” said UCLA’s Ron Brookmeyer.

Researchers engineered a hydrogel that, when injected into the brain, thickens to create a scaffolding into which blood vessels and neurons can grow.