Lasers that can flip cells off and on and brain scanners that can be worn are just two projects receiving federal grants as a part of the $100 million BRAIN Initiative aimed to learn more about the inner-workings of the brain.

Lower amounts of a protein called progranulin in the brain have been shown to increase beta-amyloid formation and neuroinflammation. A gene therapy may be the key to reversing these markers of Alzheimer’s disease, Gladstone Institutes announced yesterday.

BioClinica, Inc., a leading provider of outsourced clinical trial services and eClinical Solutions, today announced that its Compass technology, a risk-based monitoring solution that improves overall quality in clinical trials, has won the inaugural Society for Clinical Data Management (SCDM) NextGen Technology Innovation (TIA) Award.

Following World Alzheimer's Day, a list of recent Alzheimer's studies, including brain PET research, was recently published by Examiner.com.

Acorda Therapeutics has made an agreement with Civitas Therapeutics to acquire the latter for $525 million. The purchase comes with global rights over a portfolio of drugs in development, including an inhalable drug called CVT-301, currently being validated for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease symptoms, Acorda announced Sept. 24.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals announced Friday that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), a division of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is recommending marketing authorization in the European Union for Lymphoseek (tilmanocept) preparation for the presurgical mapping of sentinel lymph nodes that provide a point of potential metastasis in primary head and beck oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma and breast cancer.

Altruistic people, such as those who would be willing to donate an organ to a stranger, show a stronger response to fearful faces in the form of a spike of activity in the amygdala when scanned using fMRI, according to a feature in the Discover D-Brief Blog.

A retrospective study gauging the benefit of PET/CT after first-line therapy for follicular lymphoma in multi-center trials puts PET/CT on a pedestal above CT alone as a tool for gauging patients’ response to therapy and prospective survival, according to a study published Sept. 18 in The Lancet Haematology.