Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders. "What if computers could respond to our thoughts? Or language barriers could come tumbling down? Or if millions of Americans were suddenly finding new jobs in these fields -- jobs we haven't even dreamt up yet because we chose to invest in this project? That is the future we are imagining. That is what we are hoping for," the president said in an event in the East Room of the White House. The initiative, dubbed Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or BRAIN, "aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury," the White House said in a release issued in advance of the event. "There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked," Obama said, "and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how … Continue reading →

Apr. 2, 2013 Today at the White House, President Barak Obama unveiled the "BRAIN" Initiative -- a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. The NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is part of a new Presidential focus aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers will be able to produce a revolutionary new dynamic picture of the brain that, for the first time, shows how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact in both time and space. Long desired by researchers seeking new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, this picture will fill major gaps in our current knowledge and provide unprecedented opportunities for exploring exactly how the brain enables the human body to record, process, utilize, store, and retrieve vast quantities of information, all at the speed of thought. Why is the NIH BRAIN Initiative needed? With nearly 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections, the human brain remains one of the greatest mysteries in science … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders. "What if computers could respond to our thoughts? Or language barriers could come tumbling down? Or if millions of Americans were suddenly finding new jobs in these fields -- jobs we haven't even dreamt up yet because we chose to invest in this project? That is the future we are imagining. That is what we are hoping for," the president said in an event in the East Room of the White House. The initiative, dubbed Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or BRAIN, "aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury," the White House said in a release issued in advance of the event. "There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked," Obama said, "and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how … Continue reading →

By Alex Mooney, CNN updated 7:15 PM EDT, Tue April 2, 2013 STORY HIGHLIGHTS Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders. "What if computers could respond to our thoughts? Or language barriers could come tumbling down? Or if millions of Americans were suddenly finding new jobs in these fields -- jobs we haven't even dreamt up yet because we chose to invest in this project? That is the future we are imagining. That is what we are hoping for," the president said in an event in the East Room of the White House. The initiative, dubbed Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or BRAIN, "aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury," the White House said in a release issued in advance of the event. "There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked," Obama said, "and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain … Continue reading →

Public release date: 1-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Dwight Angell dwight.angell@hfhs.org 313-876-8709 Henry Ford Health System DETROIT In a first-of-its-kind experiment using microvesicles generated from mesenchymal bone marrow cells (MSCs) to treat cancer, neurological researchers at Henry Ford Hospital have discovered a novel approach for treatment of tumor. Specifically, the research team found that introducing genetic material produced by MSCs, significantly reduced a particularly resistant form of malignant brain tumor in living lab rats. "This is the first foray of its type in experimental cancer therapy, and it represents a highly novel and potentially effective treatment," says Michael Chopp, Ph.D., scientific director of the Henry Ford Neuroscience Institute and vice chairman of the Department of Neurology at Henry Ford Hospital. The research is published in the current issue Cancer Letters. "I think this is an important and very novel approach for the treatment of cancers, and in this particular case the treatment of glioma," says Dr. Chopp. "We have been at the forefront of developing microRNAs as a means to treat disease, such as cancer and neurological injury. "This study shows it is effective in the living brain, and may even lend itself to specific cancer therapy, … Continue reading →

1 April 2013 Last updated at 06:43 ET A specialist rehabilitation centre in Bath for people with brain injuries has been closed. The unit, at Bath's Royal National Hospital, shut on Sunday following a drop in demand for services. Councillors are now urging the government to reverse the decision and have written to the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The hospital trust said the NHS would continue to treat the patients who need care elsewhere in the country. Peter Miles, elected public governor for the hospital, criticised the closure and said it may not be too late for the government to step in. Mr Miles said: "The local council was not informed of this decision until some time in January. "They have a statutory right to be informed early on so they can consult, so they're quite upset about this and they've referred it to the Secretary of State." The letter has been written by Bath and North East Somerset Council's wellbeing policy development and scrutiny panel. The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust has previously said in a statement that the number of local patients they cared for was "really quite small at around 20 people a … Continue reading →

TEMPLE, Texas, April 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --ONE MIND for Research was presented a gift of $50,000 towards the organization, whose goal is to make advancements in brain injury and related diseases through collaboration and information sharing. The check was presented by Drayton McLane Jr., Chairman and CEO of MAT. The McLane family donation will benefit U.S. soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and other various brain diseases. General Peter Chiarelli, USA (Ret.) is the CEO of ONE MIND for Research. At the end of his 40-year military career, he retired as a distinguished four-star General. His service included designing and implementing American defense policy for the US Army and the Department of Defense during peace and war combat operations. "PTS is an injury, not a disorder," said Chiarelli. "There is much research that needs to be done and ONE MIND is working hard to ensure that this research is collected into a data base for all the best intellects in neuroscience to explore and find answers." The McLane family supports the mission of ONE MIND for Research, and hopes to shed light upon the reality of invisible war wounds that soldiers experience with PTS … Continue reading →

Apr. 1, 2013 In a first-of-its-kind experiment using microvesicles generated from mesenchymal bone marrow cells (MSCs) to treat cancer, neurological researchers at Henry Ford Hospital have discovered a novel approach for treatment of tumors. Specifically, the research team found that introducing genetic material produced by MSCs significantly reduced a particularly resistant form of malignant brain tumor in living lab rats. "This is the first foray of its type in experimental cancer therapy, and it represents a highly novel and potentially effective treatment," says Michael Chopp, Ph.D., scientific director of the Henry Ford Neuroscience Institute and vice chairman of the Department of Neurology at Henry Ford Hospital. The research is published in the current issue Cancer Letters. "I think this is an important and very novel approach for the treatment of cancers, and in this particular case the treatment of glioma," says Dr. Chopp. "We have been at the forefront of developing microRNAs as a means to treat disease, such as cancer and neurological injury. "This study shows it is effective in the living brain, and may even lend itself to specific cancer therapy, customized for the individual patient," Chopp adds. Chopp and his colleagues focused their efforts on glioma, by … Continue reading →

Mar. 28, 2013 Ice hockey accounts for nearly half of all traumatic brain injuries among children and youth participating in organized sports who required a trip to an emergency department in Canada, according to a new study out of St. Michael's Hospital. The results are part of a first-of-its-kind study led by Dr. Michael Cusimano that looked at causes of sports-related brain injuries in Canadian youth and also uncovered some prevention tactics that could be immediately implemented to make sports safer for kids. "Unless we understand how children are getting hurt in sport, we can't develop ways to prevent these serious injuries from happening," said Dr. Cusimano, a neurosurgeon and the lead author of the study. "One would think that we know the reasons why kids are having brain injuries in sports, but until know, it was based mainly on anecdotes." The study used data from The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program to look at the almost 13,000 children and youth aged 5-19 who had a sports-related brain injury between 1990 and 2009. The results appeared in the journal PLOS ONE today. The researchers categorized injuries by players' ages, what sport they occurred in and what mechanisms had … Continue reading →

Considerable opportunity exists to improve interventions and outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in older adults, according to three studies published in the recent online issue of NeuroRehabilitation by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. New York, NY (PRWEB) March 28, 2013 Some evidence suggests that a history of TBI is associated with an increased risk of dementia later in life, but the clinical features of dementia associated with TBI have not been well investigated. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine as well as other institutions analyzed data from elderly individuals with dementia with and without a history of TBI to characterize the clinical profiles of patients with post-TBI dementia. The results of the study indicate that compared to older adults with dementia with no history of TBI, those with a history of TBI had higher fluency and verbal memory scores and later onset of decline. However, their general health was worse, they were more likely to have received medical attention for depression, and were more likely to have a gait disorder, falls, and motor slowness. These findings suggest that dementia among individuals with a history of TBI may represent a unique clinical phenotype that … Continue reading →