However, he said that embryonic stem cells remained the most obvious source of cells for such transplants, as foetal tissue - used in some experiments - was scarce, and so-called "adult stem cells" had never been converted into the right type of brain cells, despite 15 years of research.
The more stem cells present, the more virulently the tumor grows:They account for 1 in 4 cells in a glioblastoma tumor, the deadliest type of brain cancer, but only 1 in 500 cells in slower-growing forms of brain cancer, Dirks found.
The next step was to transform the stem cells into immature versions of cells in the brain that produce myelin.
This fall Dirks and six scientists at the University of Toronto proved the existence of the cells in human brain tumors, pinpointing a small group of cells believed to be the driver of the tumors' growth.
They combined conventional PET imaging, which requires a radioactive tracer to highlight the brain's metabolic activity, with other recent advances in the genetic engineering of brain cells that allows them to target specific brain circuits in lab animals.
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The new compound works by a hitherto unknown pathway of chemical reactions in the brain cells, particularly those in those parts of the brain which are related to appetite.
In the late 1980s, researchers at the University of Parma in Italy found that the brain cells of macaque monkey fired in the same way whether they were making a particular motion (like reaching for a peanut) or watching another monkey or human make that movement.
Animal studies have shown that stress damages brain cells to the point where it can inhibit neurogenesis (the growth of new brain cells).
Adrian Cheng invented a powerful non-invasive, high-speed microscope technology for imaging the activity of thousands of cells in the brain simultaneously, in real time, offering a view of neural circuits at work.
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There is also a crippling loss of nerve cells in brain areas involved in cognitive functions which leads to the main behavioural symptom, failure of the memory.
Brain tumors are the growth of abnormal cells in the brain tissue.
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But much of the damage happens when brain cells, starved of oxygen, start churning out compounds that can actually be toxic.
It is not yet clear how learning triggers the retention of the new brain cells and the laying down of memories.
Unlike nerve cells in the rest of the brain which are covered with protective myelin, the nerve cells in the retina are bare with no myelin coat.
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An optogenetics device could hit more specific subsets of brain cells than those devices can.
Our inventions will always be shadowed by uncertainty, by the serendipity of brain cells making a new connection.
The technique begins with the placing of light-sensitive proteins from green algae inside specific types of brain cells.
The viruses used to deliver the light-sensitive proteins can be engineered to target very specific clusters of brain cells.
It results from a loss of cells in the brain that produce a chemical messenger called dopamine, which coordinates movement.
"I think that would not even remotely register in the brain cells of Lewis Hamilton, " he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Instead, scientists believe that it "recruits" another natural protein, PrP, which sits on the surface of brain cells, to become like it.
In patients with dementia, the symptoms of brain cells dying, bad sleep and memory loss are far far worse than in normal ageing.
The targets are brain molecules that seem to be involved in causing a deadly hyperactivity that depletes brain cells of energy after a stroke.
Dr. David Amaral of the MIND Institute says the team used automated techniques to estimate the number of brain cells in each amygdala.
Pentosan, it is hoped, may be able to latch onto prions, rendering them less harmful, and perhaps allowing them to be flushed out of brain cells.
Recent animal studies have shown that stimulating the entorhinal cortex improved the growth of brain cells in adult mice and appeared to enhance memory for locations and spatial knowledge.
Huntington's disease is an hereditary neurological disorder of the central nervous system that causes progressive degeneration of cells in the brain, slowly impairing a person's ability to walk, think, talk and reason.
The stem cells were taken from these and, in a laboratory culture, and body chemicals used to "persuade" them to shift, stage by stage, from this state into the type of brain cells that their Parkinsonism mice were lacking.
He argues that the amount of amyloid in patient brains doesn't correlate much with dementia, and blocking tau, a second protein that accumulates in the brain cells of demented patients, as his company is doing is a much better way to go.
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