Simple pharmaceutical interventions could help older brains cope with memory impairment and recovery after surgery, new studies in mice suggest. In two studies, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign investigated different aspects of cognitive impairment: postoperative impairment — a relatively common phenomenon among older adults — and age-related memory decline, as well as noninvasive methods of restoring function. 

In a world-first, a team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, has successfully performed a coronary artery bypass — a normally open-heart surgery — without cutting the chest wall. The team employed a novel intervention to prevent the blockage of a vital coronary artery, which is a very rare but often lethal complication following a heart-valve replacement. The results suggest that, in the future, a less traumatic alternative to open-heart surgery could become widely available for those at risk of coronary artery obstruction.