news 2021

Maternal pheromones play an important role in infant sociability, according to a new study at CHU Sainte-Justine. Maternal pheromones enhance synchrony between the infant's and the mother's brains, suggesting their role in the development of the baby's "social instinct" and opening the door to new therapeutic strategies for developmental disorders.

University of Queensland researchers have discovered an exercise 'sweet spot' that reverses the cognitive decline in ageing mice, paving the way for human studies. After more than a decade of research, led by Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Dan Blackmore , the team found 35 days of voluntary physical exercise improved learning and memory.

Antibiotics cure many bacterial infections. However, some patients suffer a relapse. A research group at the University of Basel has now discovered why some bacteria can survive antibiotic therapy. The team uncovered where the bacteria hide in the body and how the body's own immune system also plays an important role.

What happens in the brain when simply hearing becomes listening? To answer this question, researchers at the University of Basel have traced the neuronal fingerprint of the two types of sound processing in the mouse brain. It is intuitively clear to us that there is a difference between passive hearing and active listening.

Scientists at the Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC) have been able to use a highly-sensitive method called -synuclein real-time quaking-induced conversion (?Syn-RT-QuIC) to observe the clumping of alpha-synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) taken from people with Parkinson's. The findings offer hope that a pioneering new clinical test could be developed to diagnose Parkinson's correctly in its early stages.

UNIGE Scientists have discovered how the absence of a genetic switch can lead to malformations during embryonic development. Embryonic development follows delicate stages: for everything to go well, many genes must coordinate their activity according to a very meticulous scheme and tempo. This precision mechanism sometimes fails, leading to more or less disabling malformations.

Shaking hands is an example of a social convention to say hello or goodbye. For the first time, scientists have studied the development of social conventions in non-human primates. Baboons, for example, can also establish conventions A research team from the CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université has demonstrated that members of a group of baboons can establish shared social conventions - in this case, by all agreeing on how to solve a problem in order to get a reward faster.

Environment Herbicide Roundup disturbing freshwater biodiversity As Health Canada extends the deadline on public consultation on higher herbicide concentrations in certain foods, research from McGill University shows that the herbicide Roundup, at concentrations commonly measured in agricultural runoff, can have dramatic effects on natural bacterial communities.

Commercial fishing, particularly in reduced fish populations, may be responsible for genetic changes and affect overall population resilience if not carefully managed. A new study, led by the University of Glasgow and published in PNAS, examined how commercial fishing practices - such as trawling - impacted the genetic evolution of fish populations, both directly and through reduced fish population density, mimicking declines in stocks due to over-fishing.

It-s the second case detected in two days Officials at the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, working in collaboration with scientists at University of California San Diego and Scripps Research, have announced the second confirmed case — and first locally acquired infection — of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. But what if the skin "disintegrates" at just the slightest touch? This is exactly what happens with Epidermolysis bullosa (EB), sometimes also known by the name 'butterfly disease'. This skin disease is based on genetic defects and, because there is no cure, it can be fatal, often even in young patients.

An international team of researchers has developed a new approach to pinpoint which proteins in our cells are most critical for increasing sugar absorption after exercise - an important benefit of exercise that can help maintain good blood sugar levels. The results of this work are published in the December issue of the international research , the result of a global collaboration by scientists at the University of Sydney and the University of Copenhagen.

Göttingen researchers investigate the effect of certain enzymes in the healthy and diseased brain The brain is a remarkably complex and adaptable organ. However, adaptability decreases with age: as new connections between nerve cells in the brain form less easily, the brain's plasticity decreases. If there is an injury to the central nervous system such as after a stroke, the brain needs to compensate for this by reorganising itself.

Hydras are tiny creatures with regenerative superpowers: they can renew their stem cells and replace damaged body parts in only a few days. Now, researchers in the Tsiairis group have found that mechanical forces turn on key genes as the mighty Hydras regenerate their entire bodies from scraps of tissue.

Like the body itself, cells within the body of living animals require fuel for energy, but it's not always known how different fuel sources affect the function of those cells. Astrocytes, a type of brain cell, for instance, can use both glucose and fatty acids for fuel. But just how fatty acids affect astrocyte function - and the brain pathways they are connected with - is not well understood.

An exclusive "license" for making insulin in the human body belongs to the beta cells scattered throughout the pancreas. But because beta cells can become scarce or dysfunctional in people with diabetes, scientists have been searching for other cells that might be coaxed into manufacturing the vital glucose-regulating hormone.

Researchers aim at decoding tumour development in hereditary colon cancer using mathematical modelling of medical data A new interdisciplinary research project aims to uncover information that can help decode hereditary colon cancer with the aid of mathematical models. Mathematicians and tumour biologists of Heidelberg University, the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg University Hospital, and the German Cancer Research Center are collaborating on the project.

Metabolic disorders associated with excessive weight gain can lead to changes in parts of the brain that are responsible for motivation and mood, UdeM researcher Stéphanie Fulton finds. Obese people run a higher-than-average risk of depression or anxiety, the result of a combination of factors: poor diet, lack of physical activity and an accumulation of fat cells in their body called visceral adipocytes.

Researchers optimise a peptide known to prevent the protein error that gives rise to Parkinson's disease. A molecule that shows promise in preventing Parkinson's disease has been refined by scientists at the University of Bath and has the potential to be developed into a drug to treat the incurable neurodegenerative disease.

Gene therapy is a powerful developing technology that has the potential to address myriad diseases. For example, Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, is caused by a mutation in a single gene, and if researchers could go into specific cells and correct that defect, theoretically those cells could regain normal function.