Guest:
Our guest, world-renowned geneticist, Dr. Fred Alt from Harvard Medical School talks about his latest paper in Nature Biotechnology where he describes a novel method to detect off target effects of gene editing technology.
Resources and Links
False Memories Implanted into the Brains of Sleeping Mice – By directly manipulating the brains of sleeping mice, researchers tricked the animals into thinking they had received a reward at a specific place when they wake up.
Autism Genes Linked to Higher Intelligence: Treading a Fine Line between Intellectual Disability and Superiority – A comprehensive study conducted shows that genetic variation, which increases risk for autism, is associated with better cognitive ability in non-autistic individuals.
Left or Right? The Brain Knows Before You Move – Scientists at Janelia Research Campus have identified a neural circuit that connects motor planning to movement.
Mutation May Cause Early Loss of Sperm Supply – Brown University biologists have determined how the loss of a gene in male mice results in the premature exhaustion of their fertility.
Sobering Effect of the Love Hormone – Oxytocin, sometimes referred to as the ‘love’ or ‘cuddle’ hormone, prevents alcohol from accessing specific sites in the brain that cause alcohol’s intoxicating effects, sites known as delta-subunit GABA-A receptors.
Tapping into Beer’s Therapeutic Potential – This article describes the study conducted by Chinese researchers on xanthohumol, a compound found in hops that prevented the brain cells from dying and also increased cell production of several antioxidants that counteracted oxidative damage.
Severe Depression Linked with Inflammation in the Brain – This article shows that there was a significant inflammation in the brains of the people with depression, and the inflammation was most severe among the participants with the most severe depression.