Research Roundup

Neurologists replicate nerve cells

Medical Center scientists have created an unlimited supply of a type of nerve cell found in the spinal cord--a self-renewing cell line that offers a limitless supply of human nerve cells in the laboratory. Such a supply has long been a goal of neurologists anxious to replace dead or dying cells with healthy ones in a host of neurological diseases. In this study, appearing in the March issue of Nature Biotechnology, scientists led by neurologist Steven Goldman used the cells to partially repair damaged spinal cords in laboratory animals, regrowing small sections of the spinal cord that had been damaged.

Software makes surveillance smart

Researchers at the University's computer science laboratories have found a way to give surveillance cameras a rudimentary brain, and the research has already been licensed to a Rochester company with an aim toward homeland security.

"If we can get intelligent machines to stand in for people in observation tasks," says Randal Nelson, associate professor of computer science and creator of the software's "brain," "we can achieve knowledge about our environment that would otherwise be unaffordable." Far from being an electronic "Big Brother," the software only focuses on things for which it was trained to look--like a gun in an airport or the absence of a piece of equipment in a lab. The technology has been licensed to a local company, which has plans to develop it to control video cameras for security applications.

Sepsis drug protects brain cells

A compound currently used to treat patients with severe sepsis also protects brain cells in an unexpected way, say University researchers in the February 19 issue of the journal Neuron. Last year Berislav Zlokovic, professor of neurosurgery, led a team that showed the compound used to reduce inflammation or increase blood flow in patients with severe sepsis also protects the cells that are vital to supply blood to the brain. In the latest paper, Zlokovic and colleagues show that the compound also directly protects vital brain cells known as neurons. The findings open the possibility of creating a new compound that would keep brain cells healthy without causing major side effects such as increased bleeding.

Study tackles childhood disease

Rochester scientists have discovered just how a genetic defect disrupts the cellular "garbage disposal" of a cell, resulting in a horrific childhood disease that kills most patients before the age of 25.

For nine years researchers have known the precise genetic flaw that causes Batten disease, but understanding how a straightforward mistake in life's blueprint translates to a disease that ravages roughly 1,000 children in the United States each year has been a challenge. In a paper published in the December 23 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team from the Medical Center led by David Pearce of the Center for Aging and Developmental Biology lays out the sequence of biochemical steps that results in the disease.

Children with Batten disease are born healthy, but often, around age 4 or 5, the first symptoms appear as a minor problem with a child's eyesight. Subsequently patients are beset with a host of medical problems, including frequent seizures, loss of the ability to speak or move, and mental retardation.

"When I began this research, I had just become a parent, and I was horrified to find out that such a disease is out there," says Pearce. "It's my goal to be able to offer these children and their families some relief from this terrible illness."

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