CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine is home to a new federally funded center that will study the effects of exposure to toxicants in fish being eaten in large quantities by Laotian and Hmong refugees in Green Bay and Appleton, Wis. Researchers from five institutions will work in the UI-based consortium, which also will develop outreach programs to help the refugees reduce their consumption of the fish contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls and methyl mercury. The FRIENDS Children's Environmental Health Center at the UI was among four new children's environmental health research centers announced Oct. 25 in Cincinnati. They were established under a joint program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency. The centers each will receive about $1 million per year for the next five years.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 3: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Link ID: 867 - Posted: 10.28.2001

James Randerson, Glasgow The deadly botulinum neurotoxin could be harnessed to treat pain, says a British team. Researchers at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR) in Salisbury have chemically altered the toxin so that instead of acting on motor neurones and causing paralysis, it targets nerve cells that transmit pain signals. "We are developing molecules that will specifically target pain neurones," says researcher Keith Foster. The team hopes their work will lead to effective treatments for a wide range of pain disorders including chronic back pain, neck pain, headaches, post-surgical pain and chronic cancer pain. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 8: General Principles of Sensory Processing, Touch, and Pain
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 568 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Janet Raloff
Lead, a toxic heavy metal, can show up in the most unexpected places. For instance, several recent studies documented a worrisome tainting of calcium supplements. Just last month, some Mexican lollipops were recalled from U.S. stores upon a finding that their wrappers had leached lead into the candy. And recently, this column recounted the perils of a man poisoned by his bathtub winemaking operations. Of course, people can be exposed to lead through more obvious means-by breathing fumes in metalworking plants, eating foods tainted by emissions from cars burning leaded gasoline, exposure to peeling lead-based paint, or drinking water that enters homes through lead-soldered pipes. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 3: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Link ID: 315 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Neuroscientists are mining an unlikely source for new treatments. Venoms. Researchers found that venoms contain many compounds that have an exceptional ability to zero in on specific targets in the nervous system. Insights into the specialized abilities of select venom components may lead to new treatments for a number of nervous system ailments. Scorpions, snails, snakes and spiders unleash venoms through their fangs or stingers. They hurt, stun and kill. Clearly the poisonous cocktails are bad news for an attacking bird, tasty-looking fish or hapless human. It turns out, however, that venoms are grand news for neuroscience. New research indicates that venoms contain many molecules packed with exceptional targeting abilities that interfere with specific internal mechanisms. Exploiting this characteristic may help solve a variety of problems in the nervous system, according to accumulating evidence from work on animals and humans. Copyright © 2001 Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission of the Society for Neuroscience.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 3: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Link ID: 274 - Posted: 10.20.2001

MIT researchers find individual brain cells 'tuned' to entire categories of information Monkeys learn to see differences between cats and dogs JANUARY 11, 2001 Contact information CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that individual neurons in monkeys' brains can become tuned to the concept of "cat" and others to the concept of "dog. The study suggests that people, too, have individual neurons sensitive to categories of our most familiar things. This is the first time, the MIT researchers report in the Jan. 12 issue of Science, that individual brain cells have been linked with one of the brain's most important cognitive functions: the ability to instantly categorize what we see.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 157 - Posted: 10.20.2001