Tag: Mechanisms

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2010) A fascinating new study combines snakes with brain imaging in order to uncover neural mechanisms associated with "courage." The research, published by Cell Press in the June 24 issue of the journal Neuron, provides new insight into what happens in the brain when an individual voluntarily performs an action opposite to that promoted by ongoing fear and may even lead to new treatment strategies for those who exhibit a failure to overcome their fear.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2009) The search for the holy grail of regenerative medicine -- the ability to "grow back" a perfect body part when one is lost to injury or disease -- has been under way for years, yet the steps involved in this seemingly magic process are still poorly understood.

Now researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified an essential cellular pathway in zebrafish that paves the way for limb regeneration by unlocking gene expression patterns last seen during embryonic development. They found that a process known as histone demethylation switches cells at the amputation site from an inactive to an active state, which turns on the genes required to build a copy of the lost limb.