Establishing preclinical models of Alzheimer\u2019s that reflect in-life clinical symptoms of each individual is a critically important goal, yet so far it has not been fully realised. A new collaborative study from the University of Oxford has demonstrated that clinical vulnerability to an abnormally abundant protein in Alzheimer\u2019s brain is in fact reflected in individual patient induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical neurons.
A new review from Professor Ana Domingos\u2019 lab and colleagues offers a fresh modern viewpoint on sympathetic neurons and their relation to immune cells and obesity.
Professor Ana Domingos has been awarded a highly competitive independent research grant from Pfizer to discover \u2018the role of Sympathetic-associated Perineurial barrier Cells in obesity\u2019.
Dr Armin Lak, Associate Professor Ed Mann and Professor Zolt\u00e1n Moln\u00e1r have been awarded a \u00a3733K Project Grant from the Medical Research Council on \u201cOrexinergic projections to neocortex: potential role in arousal, stress and anxiety-related disorders\u201d.
A collaborative DPAG-led study studied patients at six and twelve months after COVID-19 infection, finding that prior COVID-19 infection was associated with more uneven inflation of the lungs during normal breathing. There was also an association between hospitalisation with COVID-19 and smaller lung volumes, and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) was associated with an enlarged respiratory dead space.
The British Heart Foundation were charity of the year for the 2022 TCS London Marathon. Around 800 BHF London Marathon runners, including former De Val lab researcher Dr Alice Preston, have\u202fraised\u202fnearly \u00a32 million, and rising, for BHF-funded science that could lead to improved new treatments for heart failure. Research led by Associate Professor Sarah De Val and Dr Joaquim Vieira are two of eight projects to receive funding from these proceeds.
A new study from the Bruno Group is challenging our perceptions of how the different regions of the cerebral cortex function. A group of \u2018quiet\u2019 cells in the somatosensory cortex that rarely respond to touch have been found to react mainly to surprising circumstances. The results suggest their function is not necessarily driven by touch, but may indicate an important and previously unidentified role across all the major cortices.
In the 2022 Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution, DPAG's Visiting Professor of Forensic Anatomy Dame Sue Black will share secrets of forensic science.
Swietach Group scientists have identified a rescue mechanism that allows cancers to overcome the consequences of inactivating mutations in critically important genes.
Congratulations are in order for Professors Randy Bruno and Scott Waddell who have each been awarded a prestigious Wellcome Trust Discovery Award to significantly enhance our understanding of higher cognitive functions.
DPAG\u2019s auditory neuroscience researchers have found that the auditory system adapts to the changing acoustics of reverberant environments by temporally shifting the inhibitory tuning of cortical neurons to remove reverberation.
The Molecular Flow Sensor Team, with collaborating members principally from DPAG\u2019s Robbins and Talbot groups and the Department of Chemistry, has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry\u2019s (RSC) Analytical Division Horizon Prize for the development of a new technology for measuring lung function.
A collaborative research team led by the Oxford Parkinson\u2019s Disease Centre (OPDC) has been awarded a \u00a33.8 million Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award to study the function of calcium in dopamine neurons, and how this is plays a role in Parkinson\u2019s. Their research will help explain how and why dopamine neurons are vulnerable in the disease and look at how they may be preserved.
Research led by Dr Alzbeta Hulikova and Professor Pawel Swietach has, for the first time, described the potential regulation of nuclear acid-base chemistry in neonatal and adult cardiomyocytes, and explained its relevance in the context of heart physiology and pathology.
Phantom percepts, such as subjective tinnitus, are driven by fundamental changes in spontaneous brain activity. Sleep is a natural example of major shifts in spontaneous brain activity and perceptual state, suggesting an interaction between sleep and tinnitus that has so far been little considered. In a new collaborative review article from DPAG\u2019s auditory and sleep neuroscientists, tinnitus and sleep research is brought together for the first time, and, in conclusion, they propose a fundamental relationship between natural brain dynamics and the expression and pathogenesis of tinnitus.
A new Klemm Lab-led paper has uncovered a new mechanism involving the endoplasmic reticulum that is critical to the organisation and position of the microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton, which ultimately dictates the shape and function of our body\u2019s cells.
A new DPAG-led review paper, published in the journal Brain, has shown that a poorly understood region of the brain called the claustrum may play an important role in how we experience pain.
A new Novo Nordisk project paper has uncovered the role of ACC1 enzyme in the regulation of glucagon secretion for the first time. This raises the prospect of a potential new therapeutic target in the context of type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders characterised by hyperglycaemia.
Congratulations are in order for Sir Henry Dale Fellow Dr Armin Lak who has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. His funded project will investigate the neural circuits for learning under perceptual uncertainty.
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