Nervous System Diseases

Researchers uncover diverse subtypes of serotonin-producing neurons By Stephanie Dutchen, HMS Writer/Editor It used to be enough to call a serotonergic neuron a serotonergic neuron. These brain cells make the neurotransmitter serotonin, which helps...

Turning skin cells into pain-sensing neurons Human noxious stimulus detecting sensory neurons produced by converting skin cells with a set of five genes to this new fate—enabling study of "pain"in a dish. (Credit: Elizabeth Buttermore, PhD) After more...

HSCI lab explores the use of stem cell therapy to treat epilepsy Human pluripotent stem cell-derived interneurons (yellow) integrate into epileptic brain. (Credit: Chung Lab) Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at McLean Hospital have new evidence that...

This story, written by Peter Reuell, was originally posted by the Harvard Gazette. Photo of Adam Cohen, PhD, in the lab by Martha Stewart. In oncology, the notion of personalized medicine—in which genetic tools can be used precisely to characterize a...

Lee Rubin, PhD, and Amy Wagers, PhD, (below) of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute provide more evidence that a protein known as GDF11 reverses signs of aging in mice. (Credit: B.D. Colen/Harvard University) Harvard stem cell researchers advance...

Three neurons (credit: Daniel Berger and Giulio Tomassy) Harvard neuroscientists have made a discovery that turns 160 years of neuroanatomy on its head. Myelin, the electrical insulating material long known to be essential for the fast transmission of...

Stem cells from patients offer model and drug-discovery platform for early-onset form of disease Harvard stem cell scientists have successfully converted skin cells from patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s into the types of neurons that are affected by...

To an untrained observer, the electrical storm that takes place over the brain’s neural network seems a chaotic flurry of activity. But as neuroscientists understand it, the millions of neurons are actually engaged in a sort of tightly choreographed dance...

A team of Harvard stem cell researchers has succeeded in reprogramming adult mouse skin cells directly into the type of motor neurons damaged in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), best known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)...

A new finding by Harvard stem cell biologists turns one of the basics of neurobiology on its head by demonstrating that it is possible to turn one type of already differentiated neuron into another within the brain. The discovery by Paola Arlotta and...