G proteins regulate remodelling of blood vessels
Blood vessels are extremely dynamic: depending on the external conditions, they can adapt their permeability for nutrients, their contractility, and even their shape. Unlike cardiac muscle cells, for...
View ArticleResearchers find that listening abilities depend on rhythms in the brain
(Medical Xpress)—Naturally, our brain activity waxes and wanes. When listening, this "oscillation" synchronizes to the sounds we are hearing. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have found that...
View ArticleCombination of two pharmaceuticals proves effective in the treatment of...
A new substance class for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases now promises increased efficacy paired with fewer side effects.
View ArticleHomer prevents stress-induced cognitive deficits: A lack of Homer-1 in the...
(Medical Xpress)—Before examinations and in critical situations, we need to be particularly receptive and capable of learning. However, acute exam stress and stage fright causes learning blockades and...
View ArticleNew study points to major discovery for Alzheimer's disease
The Journal of Neuroscience has published a study led by researchers at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, the first and only U.S. extension of the prestigious Max Planck Society, that...
View ArticlePathological thickening of the cardiac wall halted
The heart responds to the increased stress caused by chronically raised blood pressure, for example, by thickening its wall muscle. In the late stage of this condition, a risk of heart failure arises....
View ArticleSurprising findings in mitochondrial biology change long-standing ideas on...
New findings in mitochondrial biology thoroughly change the idea scientists had for 20 years on the role and importance of the protein MTERF1. For the first time, Max Planck researcher Mügen Terzioglu...
View ArticleStudy finds material loss protects teeth against fatigue failure
(Medical Xpress)—Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt together with dental technicians have digitally...
View ArticleSocial connections drive the 'upward spiral' of positive emotions and health
People who experience warmer, more upbeat emotions may have better physical health because they make more social connections, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of...
View ArticleCold plasma successful against brain cancer cells
For the first time, physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), biologists and physicians demonstrated the synergistic effect of cold atmospheric plasma - a partly...
View ArticleSpanish researchers describe the nine hallmarks of aging
For some species, living twice as long in good health depends on no more than a few genes. When this fact was revealed by studies on worms three decades ago, it ushered in a golden age of ageing...
View ArticleScientists discover key mechanism that boosts signalling function of neurons...
(Medical Xpress)—Locating a car that's blowing its horn in heavy traffic, channel-hopping between football and a thriller on TV without losing the plot, and not forgetting the start of a sentence by...
View ArticleCells make costume changes for cardiac regeneration
(Medical Xpress)—If the heart following a heart attack is not sufficiently supplied with blood, heart tissue dies. In adult humans, the ability to heal itself is hardly developed. Scientists from the...
View ArticleBetween B cells and T cells
Mature cells develop through a number of immature stages. During this process, they must remember the specialization they are committed to. For immune system B cells, Rudolf Grosschedl of the Max...
View ArticleNeurobiologists discover elementary motion detectors in the fruit fly
Recognising movement and its direction is one of the first and most important processing steps in any visual system. By this way, nearby predators or prey can be detected and even one's own movements...
View ArticleNew inhibitor blocks the oncogenic protein KRAS
One of the major goals in the development of anti-cancer treatments is to find an inhibitor effective against the oncogenic protein known as KRAS. Despite decades of active agent research, efforts to...
View ArticleNew muscle power from the lab
(Medical Xpress)—Unlike the heart muscle, the musculature of the locomotive organs has the capacity to heal itself. What makes this possible are muscle-specific stem cells known as satellite cells....
View ArticleBiochemical mechanisms of memory
A discovery by a research team led by Ryohei Yasuda at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience has significantly advanced basic understanding of biochemical mechanisms associated with how...
View ArticleLearning brakes in the brain
A brain capable of learning is important for survival: only those who learn can endure in the natural world. When it learns, the brain stores new information by changing the strength of the junctions...
View ArticleMicroRNA molecule modulates behavioural response to stress
Chronic stress influences our mood and behavior. Scientists of the "Max Planck – Weizmann Laboratory for Experimental Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurogenetics" investigated the molecular mechanisms...
View ArticleMolecular profiling of Ketamine's rapid antidepressant effect
One third of the patients with major depressive disorder suffer from treatment resistance and do not respond to commonly used antidepressants. Ketamine, a drug that works through a different mechanism,...
View ArticlePedaling like a Tour de France winner is a losing strategy for most of us
Pedalling like Chris Froome or Alberto Contador might seem appealing, but Oxford University researchers have found that for most of us it's likely to reduce rather than improve our performance.
View ArticleNo cable spaghetti in the brain
Our brain is a mysterious machine. Billions of nerve cells are connected such that they store information as efficiently as books are stored in a well-organized library. To this date, many details...
View ArticleLow physical capacity second only to smoking as highest death risk
A 45 year study in middle-aged men has shown that the impact of low physical capacity on risk of death is second only to smoking. The research is published today in the European Journal of Preventive...
View ArticleOrientation without a master plan: Human spatial memory is made up of...
Spatial memory is something we use and need in our everyday lives. Time for morning coffee? We head straight to the kitchen and know where to find the coffee machine and cups. To do this, we require a...
View ArticleSensor for blood flow discovered in blood vessels
Physical forces like blood pressure and the shear stress of flowing blood are important parameters for the tension of blood vessels. Scientists have been looking for a measurement sensor for many years...
View ArticleEstimating male fertility in eastern and western Germany since 1991
Research on men's birthrates have so far been rather a blind spot. Max Planck researchers have now calculated the missing age data for men using statistical methods. Their figures show that men on...
View ArticleBetter prediction for effectiveness of paroxetine
A third of patients with depression do not respond to the first antidepressant medication prescribed. Currently, the only approach available is one of trial and error. In this study, Max Planck...
View ArticleEpigenetics between the generations: Researchers prove that we inherit more...
We are more than the sum of our genes. Epigenetic mechanisms modulated by environmental cues such as diet, disease or lifestyle take a major role in regulating the DNA by switching genes on and off. It...
View ArticleHigher number of mitochondrial DNA-molecules can compensate for negative...
Male infertility can be caused by mutations in the DNA of mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells. By increasing the total DNA amount in mitochondria, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for...
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