Author Archive for ‘Ben Kuebrich’
Detecting 5-hmCs 5-hydroxymethylcytosines (5-hmC) went undiscovered because they showed up like other 5-methoxycytosines through bisulfide sequencing. The neuroscientists behind a new study in Nature Neuroscience profiles 5-hmC across development using T4 bacteriophage B-glucosyltransferase to transfer an engineered glucose-azide moiety onto the the hydroxyl of 5-hmC. This moiety was then detected and used to map 5-hmCs […]
Filed under: Aging, Epigenetics, Genetics, Molecular, Mouse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 5-hmC, B-glucosyltransferase, DIPseq, MECP2, TET
Scientists at the Max Planck institute in Munich, Germany recruited six lucid dreamers with years of experience for their study. Once in their dream, the subjects signaled researchers with left-right-left-right eye movements and then immediately started clenching their left hand ten times. Then they performed the eye movements again and made ten clenches with their […]
Filed under: Dreams, eeg, fMRI, Human, Motor, Sleep | 1 Comment
Tags: EEG, EOG, fMRI, imaging, Lucid dreams, sleep
This brand new method developed by Hadas Lapid et al. sticks an electrode into the nose with an exposed tip that directly contacts the nasal olfactory epithelium. Subjects hold their breath as odorants are blown into the nose to avoid artifacts from breathing. The study found that the epithelium seemed to be divided into patches […]
Filed under: Human, Olfaction, Psychophysics, Sensory | 1 Comment
Tags: electro-oflactogram, EOG, odors, Olfaction, pleasentness
Details of the weight loss A new study published in the NEJM enrolled 50 overweight or obese patients (BMIs between 27 and 40) in a 10-week 500 calorie diet of Optifast VLCD and low starch vegetables. As might be expected with such a rigorous diet 16 dropped out or did not lose the expected weight […]
Filed under: Behavior, Hormones, Hypothalamus, Molecular, Obesity, Peptides | 2 Comments
Tags: diet, ghrelin, hormones, leptin, long-term, maintenance, NEJM study, obesity
There is a belief in the drug community that the war on drugs prevents good research from being done on drug use. While I agree there is a scarcity of research on the potential uses of many abused drugs or how they alter states of consciousness we really do know an amazing amount about what […]
Filed under: Addiction, Behavior, Development, Drugs, Epigenetics, Genetics, Molecular, Review | Leave a Comment
Tags: Addiction, Drugs, Epigenetics, Nestler, Review, Transcription
Viberg of the Eriksson lab in Sweden shows in a new paper in Toxicology (full text) that a single exposure to BPA on postnatal day 10 has dose-dependent effects. (Mice sexually mature around p45.) The paper is still in press, so details are sparse, but authors saw changes in spontaneous behavior when exposed to a […]
Filed under: Behavior, Development, Mouse | Leave a Comment
Tags: BPA, Brain Development, Environmental Toxin, Mouse Behavior
Just saw Paul Garrity present an interesting story on the function and evolution of TRPA1–a chemical and temperature sensitive cation channel of the transient receptor potential family. He initially discovered TRPA1’s role in thermosensation using an RNAi screening of drosophila larvae on a thermal gradient. As small ectotherms (a term which essentially means cold-blooded), drosophila […]
Filed under: Drosophila, Genetics, Molecular, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: Drosophila, Genetics, Molecular, Receptors, Transient Receptor Potential, TRPA1
Today was a two-lecture day at MIT. I’ll just post about the first for now. Bertil Hille, PhD, from the University of Washington, lectured on G-protein signal transduction, specifically slow effects due to PIP2 (Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate) depletion–which was first shown in his lab by Byung-Chang Suh in 2001. Psychiatrists, in addition to biophysicists and neuroscientists, […]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: G-Proteins, MIT Lectures, PIP2, Signal Transduction
Sleep and appetite may seem unrelated at first, but they have more in common than you might think. I know the last few times I was up late working, I was snacking on something. (Though, this example is complicated by the fact that stress can lead to hunger too.) The protein leptin is associated with […]
Filed under: Hormones, Hypothalamus, Peptides | 1 Comment
The New York Times mentioned the mammalian diving reflex in an article about David Blain last Tuesday. In humans, it allows you to hold your breath longer when under water, by slowing the heart and lowering blood flow to your extremities. Aquatic mammals have a more intense version of this reflex, and when diving deep […]
Filed under: Cranial Nerves, Reflexes | 2 Comments
Ben Kuebrich
Neuroamer 