by Jon Cohen Thirty-five years ago, researchers studying chimpanzees in the wild noticed that neighboring communities had distinct grooming behaviors that could not be explained by differences in their environments. They contended that these behavioral idiosyncrasies were learned, or "cultural," and other scientists soon began noting group-specific tool uses and courting behaviors that also didn't appear to be environmental. But in a new study, researchers say some of these behaviors may be genetic after all. Before that 1975 revelation, few researchers had observed different communities of wild chimpanzees, and no one had even recognized that these behavioral differences existed. Investigators have been arguing about whether chimps truly have culture ever since. Proponents of culture published a landmark Nature paper in 1999 documenting 39 behaviors that were frequently observed in some communities and never seen in others. In the article's wake, a flood of reports began to appear about culture in other species, and the debates roiled on, with endless discussions about the meaning of the word itself. The new study, published online tomorrow in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, examines partial sequences of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from wild chimpanzees in nine different groups. This DNA is handy because it's inherited only from mothers, and only chimp females typically move to new communities. Team members examined the links between the groups and 38 of the 39 supposed cultural variants documented in the earlier report. The study does not link behaviors to specific genes or even conclude that there is a genetic explanation. Rather, it assesses whether genetic differences can be excluded as an explanation for each behavior; it finds that they cannot more than half the time. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14376 - Posted: 08.20.2010

Scientists are closer to understanding what triggers muscle damage in one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy, called facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). FSHD affects about 1 in 20,000 people, and is named for progressive weakness and wasting of muscles in the face, shoulders and upper arms. Although not life-threatening, the disease is disabling. The facial weakness in FSHD, for example, often leads to problems with chewing and speaking. The new research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and appears in the journal Science. Until now, there were few clues to the mechanism of FSHD and essentially no leads for potential therapies, beyond symptomatic treatments, said John Porter, Ph.D., a program director at NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). "This study presents a model of the disease that ties together many complex findings, and will allow researchers to test new theories and potential new treatments," Dr. Porter said. In the early 1990s, researchers found that FSHD is associated with a shortened DNA sequence located on chromosome 4. Experts predicted that discovery of one or more FSHD genes was imminent, but while a handful of candidate genes gradually emerged, none of them were found to have a key role in the disease. The mysteries surrounding FSHD deepened in 2002 when researchers, led by Silvere van der Maarel, Ph.D., at Leiden University in the Netherlands, found that the shortened DNA sequence on chromosome 4 is not enough to cause FSHD. They discovered that the disease occurs only among people who have the shortened DNA sequence plus other sequence variations on chromosome 4. That work was funded in part by NIH, the FSH Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Muscles
Link ID: 14375 - Posted: 08.20.2010

By Emily Sohn When a woman is ovulating, her behavior changes in a startling number of ways from the way she walks, talks and dresses to the men she flirts with, according to new research. The findings might offer some practical tips for women to boost their online dating prospects; for scientists to develop new kinds of ovulation detection kits; or for marketers to target sales of clothes and jewelry. The work also suggests that going on or off the birth control pill might influence a woman's choice in men. Why does ovulation change women's behavior in such subtle yet fundamental ways? Experts propose that it's an innate and subtle strategy to both attract the most desirable guys and convince them to stick around for the long haul. "The idea is that women turn up everything that has to do with femininity" at ovulation, said Greg Bryant, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "This is showing that there are all sorts of phenomena that happen in our behavior that we're not actually aware of." For a long time, scientists assumed that the hormonal shifts of ovulation happened without measurable changes in how women behaved. That's because women have a strong motivation to hide the fact that they're fertile, unlike other members of the animal kingdom. While a female baboon's swollen red rump encourages males to mate and go, for example, a female human's ability to keep a man guessing should up the chances of him mating and then staying to help take care of their children. © 2010 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 14374 - Posted: 08.20.2010

by Carl Zimmer Every spring the National Football League conducts that most cherished of American rituals, the college draft. A couple of months before the event, prospective players show off their abilities in an athletic audition known as the combine. Last winter’s combine was different from that of previous years, though. Along with the traditional 40-yard dashes and bench presses, the latest crop of aspirants also had to log time in front of a computer, trying to solve a series of brainteasers. In one test, Xs and Os were sprinkled across the computer screen as the athletes took a test that measured how well they could remember the position of each letter. In another, words like red and blue appeared on the screen in different colors. The football players had to press a key as quickly as possible if the word matched its color. These teasers are not intended to help coaches make their draft picks. They are for the benefit of the players themselves—or, to be more precise, for the benefit of the players’ gray matter. Under pressure from Congress, the N.F.L. is taking steps to do a better job of protecting its players from brain damage. The little computer challenges that the draft candidates had to solve measure some of the brain’s most crucial functions, such as its ability to hold several pieces of information at once. Given the nature of football, it is extremely likely that a number of this year’s draft picks will someday suffer a head injury on the field. After that happens, N.F.L. doctors will give them the same tests again. By comparing the new results with the baseline scores recorded just before the draft, the doctors will get a clearer sense of how badly the football players have damaged their brains and what degree of caution to take during recovery.

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 14373 - Posted: 08.20.2010

Melissa Dahl In Michelle Philpots' world, Bill Clinton is still president, everyone keeps telling each other that "life is like a box of chocolates" and no one can get Ace of Base's "The Sign"out of their heads. That's because Philpots is stuck in 1994. That year, Philpots suffered traumatic brain injuries in two car crashes. Since then, she's been unable to form new memories; every morning, her husband has to convince her that they're married, using a photo album as proof -- a real-life version of the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore movie "50 First Dates." She can remember everything that happened to her until 1994, but nothing after that -- not even her 1997 marriage. (She started dating her husband before her injury, but doesn't remember marrying the guy.) Philpots, 47, who lives in Spalding, England, has an extreme case of anterograde amnesia, a condition that inhibits the brain's ability to record any new memories. Other amnesiacs can't recall older memories, a condition called called retrograde amnesia. Amnesia is a handy plot device in pop culture, and memory experts say real-life "Memento" cases are rare, but they do exist. No case of amnesia is exactly alike, says Dr. Ronald Petersen, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. Some forget faces, some forget their native language, some "forget" their entire personality. But each case is caused by a head injury, a neurological disease or, in some cases, years of drug or alcohol abuse. Petersen, who did not treat Philpots, explains that the type of memory loss depends on what region of the brain is impacted; for example, retrograde amnesia generally happens when damage is done to the brain's temporal lobes, and both retrograde and anterograde amnesia, like Philpots has, can happen when the hippocampus is injured. But it's still not understood what makes someone's memory "reset" every 30 seconds or, in Philpots' case, every day. © 2010 msnbc.com

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 14372 - Posted: 08.17.2010

By John von Radowitz, Mid-life stress can increase the risk of women developing Alzheimer's disease, a study has shown. Women who reported repeated episodes of stress and anxiety in middle age were up to twice as likely to develop dementia than those who did not, a team of Swedish scientists found. The majority of those affected were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia. Researchers followed the progress of 1,415 women between 1968 and 2000. Three surveys in 1968, 1974 and 1980 were carried out to assess levels of psychological stress experienced by the women, who were aged between 38 and 60 at the start of the study. Stress was defined as a "sense of irritation, tension, nervousness, anxiety, fear or sleeping problems" lasting a month or more. During the course of the study, 161 of the women taking part developed dementia, mainly in the form of Alzheimer's disease. Dementia risk was 65% higher in women who suffered frequent stress in middle age. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Stress; Alzheimers
Link ID: 14371 - Posted: 08.17.2010

by Bijal Trivedi CLAIRE CHESKIN used to live in a murky world of grey, her damaged eyes only seeing large objects if they were right next to her. She could detect the outlines of people but not their expressions, and could just about make out the silhouettes of buildings, but no details. Looking into the distance? Forget it. Nowadays things are looking distinctly brighter for Cheskin. Using a device called vOICe, which translates visual images into "soundscapes", she has trained her brain to "see through her ears". When travelling, the device helps her identify points of interest; at home she uses it to find things she has put down, like coffee cups. "I've sailed across the English Channel and across the North Sea, sometimes using the vOICe to spot landmarks," she says. "The lights on the land were faint but the vOICe could pick them up." As if the signposting of objects wasn't impressive and useful enough, some long-term users of the device like Cheskin eventually report complete images somewhat akin to normal sight, thanks to a long-term rewiring of their brains. Sometimes these changes are so profound that it alters their perceptions even when they aren't using the device. As such, the vOICe (the "OIC" standing for "Oh, I See") is now proving invaluable as a research tool, providing insights into the brain's mind-boggling capacity for adaptation. The idea of hijacking another sense to replace lost vision has a long history. One of the first "sensory substitution" devices was developed in 1969 by neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita. He rigged up a television camera to a dentist's chair, on which was a 20-by-20 array of stimulators that translated images into tactile signals by vibrating against the participant's back. Despite the crudeness of the set-up, it allowed blind participants to detect the presence of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, while skilled users could even associate the physical sensations with faces and common objects. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision; Hearing
Link ID: 14370 - Posted: 08.17.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before, and now scientists think they know why — muscles retain a memory of their former fitness even as they wither from lack of use. That memory is stored as DNA-containing nuclei, which proliferate when a muscle is exercised. Contrary to previous thinking, those nuclei aren’t lost when muscles atrophy, researchers report online August 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The extra nuclei form a type of muscle memory that allows the muscle to bounce back quickly when retrained. The findings suggest that exercise early in life could help fend off frailness in the elderly, and also raise questions about how long doping athletes should be banned from competition, says study leader Kristian Gundersen, a physiologist at the University of Oslo in Norway. Muscle cells are huge, Gundersen says. And because the cells are so big, more than one nucleus is needed to supply the DNA templates for making large amounts of the proteins that give muscle its strength. Previous research has demonstrated that with exercise, muscle cells get even bigger by merging with stem cells called satellite cells, which are nestled between muscle fiber cells. Researchers had previously thought that when muscles atrophy, the extra nuclei are killed by a cell death program called apoptosis. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 14369 - Posted: 08.17.2010

People who are aggressive may be at higher risk for heart attack or stroke, a new study suggests. The study of 5,614 Italians in Sardinia found that those who scored high for antagonistic traits like competitiveness and aggression on a standard personality test had more thickening of their neck arteries compared with those who were more agreeable. The thickness of this carotid artery is considered a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, researchers said in Monday's online issue of the journal Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. "People who tend to be competitive and more willing to fight for their own self-interest have thicker arterial walls, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease," Angelina Sutin, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral fellow with the U.S. National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Md., said in a news release. "Agreeable people tend to be trusting, straightforward and show concern for others while people who score high on antagonism tend to be distrustful, skeptical and at the extreme, cynical, manipulative, self-centered, arrogant and quick to express anger," she added. When researchers followed up with study participants three years after the initial tests, they found they found the link between artery thickening and antagonism had persisted. © CBC 2010

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 14368 - Posted: 08.17.2010

By Brian Mossop Last May, I took a trip to San Diego for my brother-in-law’s graduation from college, and to meet his 4-month old son, Landon, for the first time. Throughout the weekend, I couldn’t suppress my inner science nerd, and often found myself probing my nephew’s foot reflexes. Pressured from my wife’s disapproving looks and the blank stares I received from her family as I explained why his toes curled this way or that, I dropped the shop-talk in favor of baby-talk. Having spent my postdoctoral career in neuroscience, brain development is particularly fascinating to me. But on this family visit, more striking than the baby’s neurodevelopment was the re-development of my 26-year-old brother-in-law. In just a few months’ time, Jack went from my wife’s little brother to a hands-on, first-time father. When I first met Jack, he was a tall, lanky, wet-behind-the-ears nineteen-year-old kid, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy right after graduating high school. As a two-tour Iraq war veteran, Jack saw more of the world in six years than most of us ever will, and had a large repertoire of crazy sailor stories to boot. Still, raising Landon will no doubt be the biggest challenge Jack’s ever faced. Whether he knows it or not, and whether he likes it or not, things are about to drastically change for him. By the end of the weekend trip, I saw glimpses that Jack had come to terms (well, sort of) with the fact that his life will never be the same: After struggling with securing Landon’s car seat in the back of his souped-up Mazda RX-8 for several weeks, Jack finally broke down and traded it in for a more sensible car that will make it easier to transport the little guy. © 2010 Scientific American

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Aggression
Link ID: 14367 - Posted: 08.17.2010

By Jordan Lite Despite kids’ protests, enforcing early bedtimes may be good for their mental health. Teens who are allowed to go to bed later are more likely to suffer from depression—probably for the simple reason that they are not getting enough sleep, a recent study suggests. Columbia University scientists found that depression was 24 percent more common in teens whose parents let them go to bed at midnight or later than in kids whose moms and dads required them to hit the pillow by 10 p.m. The night owls were also 20 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts. Teens with bedtimes of midnight or later got an average of seven and a half hours of sleep, whereas those with a lights-out of 10 p.m. or earlier got an average of eight hours and 10 minutes. Although the association between later bedtimes and depression was greater before controlling for parents’ marital status and poverty level, it remained statistically significant after taking those things into ac­count—as well as teens’ perceptions of how much their parents cared about them. The researchers looked at parent-enforced bedtimes—as opposed to simply logging hours slept—to rule out the possi­bility that depression was causing some kids to sleep less, rather than the other way around. Earlier work supports the idea that too little sleep may lead to depression. Research at the University of London showed that children who suffer from insomnia are at increased risk of developing depression in their tweens and teens. © 2010 Scientific American

Keyword: Sleep; Depression
Link ID: 14366 - Posted: 08.17.2010

By CHARLES Q. CHOI The infants and toddlers resemble cyborgs as they waddle and crawl around the playroom with backpacks carrying wireless transmitters and cameras strapped to their heads. Each has one camera aimed at the right eye and another at the field of view, and both send video to monitors nearby. When the video feeds are combined, the result is a recording in which red cross hairs mark the target of a child’s gaze. Scientists are using the eye-tracking setup to learn how children look at the world as they figure out how to interact with it. In the lab, children 5 months and older crawl and walk up, down and over an obstacle course of adjustable wooden slopes, cliffs, gaps and steps. And to add to the challenge, the subjects are sometimes outfitted with Teflon-coated shoes or lead-weighted vests. It may seem like the set for a new reality television show, but there are no prizes, except perhaps for the researchers. They hope to understand what prompts one child to respond to another, how infants coordinate their gaze with their hands and feet to navigate around obstructions or handle objects, and how these very young children adapt to changes, like those brought on by slippery footwear. The findings provided by these eye-trackers so far (the first light enough for children to wear) suggest that infants may be more capable of understanding and acting on what they see than had been thought. “Quick gazes at obstacles in front of them or at their mothers’ faces may be all they need to get the information they want. They seem to be surprisingly efficient,” said John Franchak, a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at New York University. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Vision
Link ID: 14365 - Posted: 08.17.2010

By ELIZABETH SIMPSON NORFOLK, Va. — Mary Writesel wrestled with obesity for a couple of decades, but it wasn't until she was diagnosed with diabetes that she considered a drastic solution: Weight-reduction surgery. Even before she left the hospital after the surgery last August, her blood sugar levels had fallen so much she no longer needed medication for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A year later and 60 pounds lighter, "I'm considered diabetes free," the 55-year-old Portsmouth resident said. "I can't tell you what a relief it is." That by no means happens to all diabetics who go through weight-reduction surgery, but it happens enough that researchers are taking note. Writesel agreed to donate a sample of fat removed during her surgery for a study being conducted by researchers at Norfolk's Eastern Virginia Medical School. "I told them they could have as much of that as they wanted." The local medical school study is one of many exploring why diabetes sometimes goes away after weight-reduction surgery. At first, the phenomenon was chalked up to weight loss, but some patients were shedding the disease before losing a pound or even leaving the hospital. Researchers at the EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center decided to study different types of body fat to see whether certain aspects are more likely to result in problems such as diabetes and heart problems. © 2010 msnbc.com

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 14364 - Posted: 08.16.2010

By Jason Palmer Research has shown that bacteria - among the simplest life forms on Earth - have a sense of smell. Scientists from Newcastle University in the UK have demonstrated that a bacterium commonly found in soil can sniff and react to ammonia in the air. It was previously thought that this "olfaction" was limited to more complex forms of life known as eukaryotes. The finding, published in Biotechnology Journal, means that bacteria have four of the five senses that humans enjoy. The discovery also has implications in the understanding and control of biofilms - the chemical coatings that bacteria can form on, for example, medical implants. Bacteria have already demonstrated the ability to react to light, in analogy to sight, and to change the genes that they express when confronted with certain materials, in analogy to touch. However, there is a distinction between an organism reacting to a chemical that it encounters directly (in analogy to the sense of taste) and a reaction to a chemical that is floating around in the air, says Reindert Nijland, lead author of the study. "The difference is both in the mechanism that does the sensing, as well as in the compounds that are sensed," Dr Nijland, now at University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, told BBC News. "The compounds detected by olfactory organs are generally much more volatile than things you can taste like 'sweet' or 'salt', and therefore can provide information about things that can be much further away; you can smell a barbecue from a few blocks away whereas you have to physically touch and eat the steak to be able to actually taste it." (C)BBC

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Evolution
Link ID: 14363 - Posted: 08.16.2010

The immune system may have a key role in the development of Parkinson's disease, say US researchers. In a 20-year study of 4,000 people, half with Parkinson's disease, the team found an association between genes controlling immunity and the condition. The results raise the possibility of new targets for drug development, Nature Genetics reports. Parkinson's UK said the study strengthened the idea that immunity is an important driver of the disease. The team were not just looking for a genetic cause of the disease, but also considered clinical and environmental factors. During their search, they discovered that groups of genes collectively known as HLA genes are associated with the condition. These genes are key for the immune system to differentiate between foreign invaders and the body's own tissues. In theory, that enables the immune system to attack infectious organisms without turning on itself - but it is not always an infallible system. The genes vary considerably between individuals. Some versions of the genes are associated with increased risk or protection against infectious disease, while others can induce autoimmune disorders in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues. Inflammation Multiple sclerosis has already been shown to be associated with the same HLA genetic variant seen in the latest study in Parkinson's disease, the researchers said. (C)BBC

Keyword: Parkinsons; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 14362 - Posted: 08.16.2010

Kea parrots are renowned thieves in their native New Zealand, and with good reason - even a complicated sequence of locks can't foil them. Hiromitsu Miyata of Kyoto University in Japan first presented keas with boxes of food secured with up to three bolts. The parrots managed to open all of them, so he made the tasks harder. The most challenging set-up involved two bolts blocking each other such that one needed to be slid open before the second would release. Miyata found that the keas cracked this problem faster if they were allowed to study the set-up for a while before attempting to break it (Animal Cognition, DOI: 10.1007/s10071-010-0342-9). This suggests they are able to plan their moves, he says. Until now, the birds were thought to tackle problems in a haphazard fashion. Issue 2773 of New Scientist magazine © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 14361 - Posted: 08.16.2010

By MATT RICHTEL Before the hiking and rafting trip, Art Kramer was concerned about a big grant. “Time is slowing down,” he says on Day 3. For the first time in three days in the wilderness, Mr. Braver is not wearing his watch. “I forgot,” he says. It is a small thing, the kind of change many vacationers notice in themselves as they unwind and lose track of time. But for Mr. Braver and his companions, these moments lead to a question: What is happening to our brains? Mr. Braver, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was one of five neuroscientists on an unusual journey. They spent a week in late May in this remote area of southern Utah, rafting the San Juan River, camping on the soft banks and hiking the tributary canyons. It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects. Cellphones do not work here, e-mail is inaccessible and laptops have been left behind. It is a trip into the heart of silence — increasingly rare now that people can get online even in far-flung vacation spots. As they head down the tight curves the San Juan has carved from ancient sandstone, the travelers will, not surprisingly, unwind, sleep better and lose the nagging feeling to check for a phone in the pocket. But the significance of such changes is a matter of debate for them. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 14360 - Posted: 08.16.2010

By Caroline Parkinson A new form of brain disease, similar to Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, could affect more people than previously thought, researchers in the US say. It had been thought that only people with one genetic profile were vulnerable to the prion disease VPSPr. But in an Annals of Neurology study, Case Western Reserve University experts found people with all three possible gene patterns are affected by VPSPr. They say the findings could help with the treatment of prion diseases. Although it is a prion disease like vCJD, VPSPr is not linked to eating infected meat. However, like CJD, the new condition happens sporadically. It was first identified because of the fast-advancing form of dementia seen in those affected. They were also unable to speak or move. But tests for CJD proved negative. Further molecular examination showed VPSPr was a prion disease, but one which looked very different to those already known. The human prion protein gene comes in three variants, depending on which amino acid the prion proteins contain - valine (V) or methionine (M). People can be VV, MM or MV. The first clutch of cases identified all had the VV variant. However, these latest cases included people with the other variants too. Despite extensive research, a relatively large group of neurodegenerative diseases associated with dementia remain undefined. (C)BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 14359 - Posted: 08.14.2010

By THE NEW YORK TIMES What happens when your work schedule interferes with a good night’s sleep and you find yourself growing increasingly exhausted? One reader asks the Consults blog. Q. I am a 51-year-old woman health care worker, and I’ve worked nights for about four years now. My problem is that I have not been able to sleep well during the day; I do not get more than two hours’ worth of sleep. I do not want to take a sleep aid because I do not want to become dependent on drugs. Is there any help for me without a sleep aid? Is this a sleep disorder? I notice I have been putting on weight since I started working nights. Charmaine, The Bronx A. Dr. Shelby Freedman Harris and Dr. Michael Thorpy of Montefiore Medical Center respond: Your question touches on a topic in sleep medicine that is increasingly gaining both research and clinical interest: the issue of shift work and insomnia. Shift work refers to anything outside of the traditional daytime work schedule. It mainly affects people who work nights but can also affect those who start work early, before 6:30 a.m., or in the evening, after 4:30 p.m. Our bodies are biologically programmed through circadian rhythms to sleep at night and be alert during the day. When we start to play around with these rhythms — by working during hours when our body physiologically desires sleep, for example — we are at risk of developing what’s known as shift work sleep disorder. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 14358 - Posted: 08.14.2010

By GINA KOLATA In 2003, 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. Now, the effort is bearing fruit with a wealth of recent scientific papers on the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s using methods like PET scans and tests of spinal fluid. More than 100 studies are under way to test drugs that might slow or stop the disease. And the collaboration is already serving as a model for similar efforts against Parkinson’s disease. A $40 million project to look for biomarkers for Parkinson’s, sponsored by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, plans to enroll 600 study subjects in the United States and Europe. The work on Alzheimer’s “is the precedent,” said Holly Barkhymer, a spokeswoman for the foundation. “We’re really excited.” The key to the Alzheimer’s project was an agreement as ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all the data, making every single finding public immediately, available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 14357 - Posted: 08.14.2010