Rogue DNA rings may be the secret spark driving deadly brain cancer

Rogue DNA rings known as ecDNA may hold the key to cracking glioblastoma’s deadly resilience. Emerging before tumors even form, they could offer scientists a crucial early-warning system and a chance to intervene before the disease becomes untreatable.

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Deep inside the brain: Unraveling the dense networks in the cerebral cortex

Mammalian brains, with their unmatched number of nerve cells and density of communication, are the most complex networks known. While methods to analyze neuronal networks sparsely have been available for decades, the dense mapping of neuronal circuits is a major scientific challenge. Researchers have now succeeded in the dense connectomic mapping of brain tissue from the cerebral cortex, and quantify the possible imprint of learning in the circuit.

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High-salt diet promotes cognitive impairment through the Alzheimer-linked protein tau

Investigators sought to understand the series of events that occur between salt consumption and poor cognition and concluded that lowering salt intake and maintaining healthy blood vessels in the brain may 'stave off' dementia. Accumulation of tau deposits has been implicated in the development of Alzheimer's disease in humans.

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