News

Dr. Costantino Iadecola Named Distinguished Scientist by the American Heart Association

Dr. Costantino Iadecola

Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director of the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and the Anne Parrish Titzell Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been recognized as a 2019 Distinguished Scientist by the American Heart Association for his outstanding contributions to cardiovascular, stroke and dementia research.

The American Heart Association (AHA) honored Dr....

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A high-salt diet may negatively affect cognitive function

Faraco

Dr. Giuseppe Faraco publishes a paper titled, "Dietary salt promotes cognitive impairment through tau phosphorylation" in Nature, 2019 Oct 23. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1688-z.

“Our study proposes a new mechanism by which salt mediates cognitive impairment and also provides further evidence of a link between dietary habits and cognitive function,” This study finds that...

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High-Salt Diet Promotes Cognitive Impairment Through the Alzheimer-Linked Protein Tau

nerves

A high-salt diet may negatively affect cognitive function by causing a deficiency of the compound nitric oxide, which is vital for maintaining vascular health in the brain, according to a new study in mice from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. When nitric oxide levels are too low, chemical changes to the protein tau occur in the brain, contributing to dementia.

In the...

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Racing Toward a Cure for Alzheimer’s Disease

group image

In the roughly 100 years since Alois Alzheimer first described the devastating neurodegenerative disease that now bears his name, scientists have developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the brain. Yet as incidence of the disease continues to rise in an aging population, effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease remain elusive.

Leading experts in neurodegenerative disease gathered on Oct. 4 at the...

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Blame the Messenger? : Faulty Building Instructions for Brain Cells May Give Rise to Neurological and Psychiatric Conditions

hagen tilgner

By now there’s no question that genetics contributes to many brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, autism and depression. But exactly how genetic malfunctions translate into disorders remains unclear, rendering cures elusive. Dr. Hagen Tilgner, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the Center for Neurogenetics of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Feil Family Brain and Mind...

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Mutant Protein Fails to Modulate Neuronal Activity, Leading to Dementia

Dr. Gan

A novel mechanism that regulates activity in the brain, discovered by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, may help explain the origins of one common type of dementia.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) primarily affects personality, emotion, behavior and motor function. It is the most common form of dementia in people under 60 years old. Investigators know that one form of FTD is caused by a mutant form of the tau protein in neurons in the brain, but exactly how this leads to dementia has...

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Failure to Communicate: Early Disruptions in Brain Cell Activity May Give Rise to Autism

Agate Boxe

By Agate Boxe

Despite decades of research, it’s still not clear what causes autism, which now affects one in 59 children in the United States. While genetic factors are involved, they don’t fully explain how the disorder arises in the brain. This lack of certainty contributes to the dearth of universal treatments for the condition, whose prevalence has more than doubled since the turn of...

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Silent Heart Attack May Increase Stroke Risk

 brain

While heart attacks that cause classic symptoms such as pressure and pain in the chest are an established risk factor for stroke because they can lead to blood clot formation, new research by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators indicates that heart attacks that have few, if any, recognized symptoms may also increase risk.

Notably, the study, published May 20 in JAMA...

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A New Strategy for Protecting the Brain After Strokes

cell team

The chemical element selenium, an essential nutrient for humans and other animals, protects the brain after a stroke and may be a basis for future stroke therapies, according to a study from scientists at Burke Neurological Institute and Weill Cornell Medicine.

The study, published in print on May 16 and online May 2 in Cell, found that selenium drives a molecular response in brain cells that protects them from a...

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Exploring the disease-modifying effects of EH301 in mouse models of ALS

Giovanni Manfredi (PI)
ALS Association ALS 190452-01

Weill Cornell Medicine Feil Family Brain & Mind Research Institute 407 E 61st St New York, NY 10065 Phone: (646) 962-8277 Fax: (646) 962-0535