Word: knowns
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...target is a rogue protein known as beta amyloid, which forms the plaques that fill the brain's memory centers; just two weeks ago scientists identified one of the enzymes that are key to its formation. Another is an abnormal variant of the tau protein, which is thought to clutter the interiors of nerve cells with threadlike tangles. Over the coming years, as a new generation of Alzheimer's drugs enters the clinical pipeline, the arguments that rage today over which is more important, beta amyloid or tau, may be resolved. Kosik suspects that both may be critical...
...removed stemlike cells from mouse brains and had grown them in a culture. Snyder then teamed up with Dr. Jeff Macklis, a colleague at Harvard Medical School who had engineered a strain of mouse whose neurons died off in a tiny region of the cortex where cells were not known to regenerate. Snyder injected the stem cells into the mice. Like heat-seeking missiles, the cells rapidly sought out the injured part of the cortex and transformed themselves into healthy neurons. "That's the beauty of stem cells," says Snyder. "You don't have to find the injury--the stem...
...tiny injury between the first and second vertebrae of Christopher Reeve's neck, and even if you could, it wouldn't look like much. But Reeve is always aware of the little wound. Ever since he sustained it in a 1995 riding accident, the actor best known for playing Superman has had virtually no movement or sensation below the neck and has been largely dependent on a ventilator to breathe...
...will robots be taking over for doctors? Probably not. Computers that today can describe every disease known to man still can't navigate a hospital corridor. And even artificial intelligence, or AI, diagnosis has its limitations. You're probably going to want a flesh-and-blood practitioner--not just a computer--to diagnose your aches and pains for at least another decade...
Scientists are also focusing on the differences between two types of fat cells, known as brown and white. The former, active in young mammals (including humans), convert fat into heat rather than storing it. That's crucial in newborns, whose temperature-regulation systems aren't fully formed. As we age, the brown cells become inactive and the white, which convert dietary fat to body fat, take over. Several research teams have found that by reactivating the brown cells in an adult animal with medication, they can burn off fat dramatically. Now the doctors are looking for a genetic switch that...