BrainBlog

Coursera rings in the new year with second offerings of two exceptional neuroscience courses. These courses are "Drugs and the Brain" and "Medical Neuroscience," first offered in December 2012-January 2013 and April through June of 2013, respectively. Both begin in 2014 by the end of the first week in January. "Drugs and the Brain" is a course by Dr. Henry Lester of CalTech . Dr. Lester is an international expert in neurotransmitter transport mechanisms and models of addiction. The course looks at the relationship between drugs (illicit, recreational, approved medications, and investigational products) and cellular activity. Mechanisms of intracellular and intercellular activity are explored. Addictions, neurodegenerative diseases, and psychiatric conditions are examined. Two additional weeks have been added to the course for this second offering. The recommended text for the course is: Eric Nestler, Steven Hyman, and Robert Malenka (2008). Molecular ...

An entry at the Dana Foundation Blog : Mahlon DeLong Wins Breakthrough Prize for Parkinson's Research 16 December 2013 Read the blog entry

From the NIH: NIH announces six funding opportunities for the BRAIN Initiative in fiscal 2014 17 December 2013 Opportunities focus on developing tools and technologies for advancing our understanding of brain circuitry Read the press release

The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder by Alan Schwarz The New York Times 15 December 2013 Read the full article

Press release from the NIH: NIH deposits first batch of genomic data for Alzheimer’s disease Researchers gain rapid access to first set of raw human genome sequence 02 December 2013 [snip] "Researchers can now freely access the first batch of genome sequence data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today. The ADSP is one of the first projects undertaken under an intensified national program of research to prevent or effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease. "The first data release includes data from 410 individuals in 89 families. Researchers deposited completed WGS data on 61 families and have deposited WGS data on parts of the remaining 28 families, which will be completed soon. WGS determines the order of all 3 billion letters in an individual’s genome. Researchers can access the sequence data at dbGaP or the National Institute on Aging Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease Data Storage Site (NIAGADS), ht...

WCU’s Helm-Estabrooks is honored by Massachusetts Neuropsychology Society The Sylva Herald 26 November 2013 Read article