“In a new study, Emerson et al. show that brain function in infancy can be used to accurately predict which high-risk infants will later receive an autism diagnosis…These findings must be replicated, but they represent an important step toward the early identification of individuals with autism before its characteristic symptoms develop.” (http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/393/eaag2882)
In the journal Cancer Research, UNC Lineberger researchers led by Neuroscience Center member Timothy R. Gershon, MD, PhD, report in the latest in a series of attempts to shut down the energy production machinery in medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children. The findings may help researchers identify a suitable therapeutic target within the sugar metabolism pathway, and provide clues to a scientific mystery surrounding the confounding way that some cancer cells get energy from sugar.
UNC School of Medicine research findings could lead to new drug targets for treating multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.
This first-of-its-kind study used MRIs to image the brains of infants, and then researchers used brain measurements and a computer algorithm to accurately predict autism before symptoms set in.
Garret Stuber, PhD, and his lab show that a molecularly defined subset of neurons in the anterior hypothalamus preferentially encode socially rewarding stimuli. These neurons project to and regulate the activity in midbrain dopamine neurons to enhance social motivation.
The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the 17th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to David Anderson, PhD, the Seymour BenzerDavid Anderson, PhD Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology for “his discovery of neural circuit mechanisms controlling emotional behaviors.”