News by Subject Biology

An international team of Russian and Belgian researchers, including scientists from HSE University, has found out that space travel has a significant impact on the brain: they discovered that cosmonauts demonstrate changes in brain connectivity related to perception and movement.

A drug developed by UCLA physician-scientists and chemists speeds up the regeneration of mouse and human blood stem cells after exposure to radiation. If the results can be replicated in humans, the compound could help people recover quicker from chemotherapy, radiation and bone marrow transplants.

A collaborative team at the Wyss Institute, Harvard SEAS, and the University of Nebraska Omaha reports in Science that they now have developed the first portable exosuit that can assist the extension of the hip joint during both walking and running. The team successfully tested their wearable robot in uneven outdoor environments while wearers walked uphill, and walked and ran at different speeds.

Voltage-gated ion channels at the surface of neurons and muscle cells control your every thought, movement; the very beating of your heart. For the first time, researchers at the EPFL's Blue Brain Project have mapped the behavior of the largest family of these channels. Published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, and freely available online as raw data, their pioneering work will power virtual drug discovery -- and, they hope, the first whole-brain simulation.

A new study sheds new light on how the CD2AP gene may enhance Alzheimer's disease susceptibility.