The importance of studying the brain in three dimentions is something we understand at MBF Bioscience. Every day scientists around the world use our products to reconstruct neurons and analyze brain cells in 3D. That's why we're excited to hear about the new possibilities for whole brain analysis coming out of Dr. Karl Deisseroth's lab at Stanford University. A press release issued last week describes a...
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There's a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time. For a neuron, emerging at a certain place within the brain destines it for a particular function. A new study posits that, for a group of cells in the hippocampus, it's not only where a neuron is born, but also when it is born, that defines the specific roles...
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A stroke patient is rushed to the hospital. Deprived of oxygen-rich blood, brain cells have already died, and more damage will probably occur in the hours and days to come. But researchers at the University of South Florida and the University of Padova in Italy say a two-part package administered through the body, rather than directly into the brain, may be the key to staving...
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[caption id="" align="alignright" width="189"] Overall view of the computer microscope developed by Drs. van der Loos and Glaser (circa 1965).[/caption] Prior to the computer microscope era, quantitative neuro-anatomical studies were performed using the camera lucida method, an optical method allowing the scientist to see the neurons as if reflected on the piece of paper on which she will trace. These studies were painstaking and extremely time-consuming....
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A monkey spots a mango and part of its brain lights up. The action takes place in the inferior temporal cortex, part of the brain that's essential to object recognition. Using retrograde tracing and anatomical imaging, scientists at the National Institute of Neuroscience, and the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan identified two interwoven, yet distinct, systems within the region's complex circuitry. “Our anatomical findings provide evidence...
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WormLab is already contributing to a variety of research projects from the study of neurodegeneration at Johns Hopkins, to research on neural circuit function at UMass, neurotransmitter transporters at Vanderbilt University, and explorations into how the brain controls growth and fat metabolism at the University of Nevada, Reno. Why? WormLab is intuitive, fast, and yields an astounding amount of data very quickly. Try it with your...
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Revving engines, blasting sirens, the drummer next door. Despite the myriad sensory stimuli going on around us at any given moment, humans have the ability to stay focused on the task at hand. This skill is due to a part of the brain known as the neocortex, a six-layer structure whose intricate wiring is largely a mystery. But researchers at the University of Virginia just...
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Humans invent tools, talk to each other, and philosophize, thanks to a part of the brain known as the neocortex. All mammals have it, allowing them to function on a more sophisticated level than animals like geckos and sea anemones. And then there are birds. Avians don't have a neocortex, yet they display higher level processes in their behavior, a characteristic which led Dr. Harvey...
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[caption id="attachment_3412" align="aligncenter" width="238"] Original figures published with permission from Dr. Ed Glaser[/caption] In 1963, Dr. Ed Glaser (co-founder of MBF Bioscience) and Dr. Hendrik van der Loos were at the John Hopkins Medical School putting the final touches on the first computer microscope, an analog computer connected to a light microscope. It was described as a system for attaching X-Y-Z transducers to a microscope stage,...
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Imagine if you could switch your depression off like a light. Researchers did it in mice. They used optogenetics to gain more insight into how brain circuits work in cases of depression, and discovered that different types of stress trigger different activity patterns in the same brain circuit. Two papers published recently in the journal Nature describe how neuronal activity in specific brain circuits in mice...
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