Se Selenium

Penn scientists are highlighted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article about their discovery of a genetic stutter that may influence the risk of developing ALS. Aaron Gitler, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology; John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of the Institute of Aging; Nancy Bonini, PhD, professor of Biology; and Virginia Lee, PhD, co-director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, all co-authors on the Nature paper describing the work, were mentioned in the article. The finding links several ALS-related clues, including a 2006 discovery also made by Penn researchers that people with ALS build up abnormal deposits of a protein called TDP-43 in their brains.

Penn scientists are highlighted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article about their discovery of a genetic stutter that may influence the risk of developing ALS. Aaron Gitler, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology; John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of the Institute of Aging; Nancy Bonini, PhD, professor of Biology; and Virginia Lee, PhD, co-director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, all co-authors on the Nature paper describing the work, were mentioned in the article. The finding links several ALS-related clues, including a 2006 discovery also made by Penn researchers that people with ALS build up abnormal deposits of a protein called TDP-43 in their brains.

What happens to the neurons in your brain when you experience a blow to the head? The impact can change the neural architecture of the brain from elastic to brittle. The research of Doug Smith, MD, director of Penn's Center for Brain Injury and Repair, on understanding how brain cells respond to injuries, is featured in the August issue of Discover.

What happens to the neurons in your brain when you experience a blow to the head? The impact can change the neural architecture of the brain from elastic to brittle. The research of Doug Smith, MD, director of Penn's Center for Brain Injury and Repair, on understanding how brain cells respond to injuries, is featured in the August issue of Discover.

The August issue of The Scientist profiles Aaron Gitler, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and his work with yeast and neurodegenerative disease proteins. Gitler is as confident as ever that these simple model organisms can provide powerful insights into human disease, but he is also moving his research into human tissues. It is this part of his research that Gitler now finds particularly rewarding. “Now we’re really touching on human disease,” he says.

The August issue of The Scientist profiles Aaron Gitler, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and his work with yeast and neurodegenerative disease proteins. Gitler is as confident as ever that these simple model organisms can provide powerful insights into human disease, but he is also moving his research into human tissues. It is this part of his research that Gitler now finds particularly rewarding. “Now we’re really touching on human disease,” he says.

The New York Times describes how a group of scientists and executives from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain. “It was unbelievable,” said Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Core Center. “It’s not science the way most of us have practiced it in our careers. But we all realized that we would never get biomarkers unless all of us parked our egos and intellectual-property noses outside the door and agreed that all of our data would be public immediately.” “Companies were caught in a prisoner’s dilemma,” said Jason Karlawish, MD, of the Penn Memory Center. “They all wanted to move the field forward, but no one wanted to take the risks of doing it.”

The New York Times describes how a group of scientists and executives from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain. “It was unbelievable,” said Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Core Center. “It’s not science the way most of us have practiced it in our careers. But we all realized that we would never get biomarkers unless all of us parked our egos and intellectual-property noses outside the door and agreed that all of our data would be public immediately.” “Companies were caught in a prisoner’s dilemma,” said Jason Karlawish, MD, of the Penn Memory Center. “They all wanted to move the field forward, but no one wanted to take the risks of doing it.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a screening test developed largely at the University of Pennsylvania has proved surprisingly good at predicting who will go from relatively mild memory decline to full-blown Alzheimer's disease. And that's raising hopes that new drugs might fight the disease early, before the brain becomes irreparably damaged, said John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Core Center who helped develop the test - a measure of three proteins in patients' cerebrospinal fluid. Another Penn researcher, Leslie Shaw, PhD, professor of Pathology and Lab Medicine, also played a lead role in developing the test. The test is unlikely to be widely used until there's something people can do to stave off the disease, said Jason Karlawish, MD, an associate professor in Geriatric Medicine and Medical Ethics.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a screening test developed largely at the University of Pennsylvania has proved surprisingly good at predicting who will go from relatively mild memory decline to full-blown Alzheimer's disease. And that's raising hopes that new drugs might fight the disease early, before the brain becomes irreparably damaged, said John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Core Center who helped develop the test - a measure of three proteins in patients' cerebrospinal fluid. Another Penn researcher, Leslie Shaw, PhD, professor of Pathology and Lab Medicine, also played a lead role in developing the test. The test is unlikely to be widely used until there's something people can do to stave off the disease, said Jason Karlawish, MD, an associate professor in Geriatric Medicine and Medical Ethics.