In a bid to better understand, and potentially treat, a host of conditions that affect early cognition, neurodevelopment and the brain later in life, investigators at Johns Hopkins Medicine and colleagues throughout the world have been mapping the molecular construction of the human brain. These models, which are supported in part by federal and international research grants, are helping researchers study genetic links and pathways involved in a variety of conditions, ranging from autism spectrum disorder, which affects about 1 in 31, or 3%, of children in the U.S., to Alzheimer’s disease, which is estimated to affect more than 7 million U.S. adults, including 1 in 9, or 11%, age 65 and older.   

To support this blueprint, Carlo Colantuoni, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and other researchers have, in their most recent study, which publishes March 25 in Nature Neuroscience, brought together data from nearly 200 published studies and more than 30 million cells to advance insight about how the neocortex, the outermost layers of the brain, develops and forms over time. This region of the brain is responsible for a variety of functions, including how we think, sense, process and store information, and make decisions.

Therapeutic solutions available for neurological disorders are limited.  A new review highlights the emerging role of regulatory B cells in immune regulation, focusing on their potential neuroprotective roles and therapeutic implications in these disorders. The review suggests that interleukin 10 secreted by the B cells play an important role in suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Regulatory B cells can become promising therapeutic targets for future neuroprotective strategies.

The asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period caused one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth's history. But some organisms defied the catastrophe. For turtles, the chance of survival was apparently linked to their diet: species with a preference for hard-shelled organisms survived the catastrophic event. SNSB paleontologist Serjoscha Evers published the results of his study in the journal Biology Letters.