http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news from Brookhaven National Laboratory (Medical Xpress)—The results of a phase 1/2 clinical trial in Europe of an investigational Lyme disease vaccine co-developed by researchers at Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and at Baxter International Inc., a U.S. based healthcare company, revealed it to be promising and well tolerated, according to a research paper published online in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The vaccine was shown to produce substantial antibodies against all targeted species of Borrelia, the causative agent of Lyme disease in Europe and the United States. Baxter International conducted the clinical trial of the vaccine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-lyme-disease-vaccine-clinical-trial.html Medications Mon, 13 May 2013 07:54:50 EST news287650482 (Medical Xpress)—Building on their history of innovative brain-imaging techniques, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have developed a new way to use light and chemistry to map brain activity in fully-awake, moving animals. The technique employs light-activated proteins to stimulate particular brain cells and positron emission tomography (PET) scans to trace the effects of that site-specific stimulation throughout the entire brain. As described in a paper published online today in the Journal of Neuroscience, the method will allow researchers to map exactly which downstream neurological pathways are activated or deactivated by stimulation of targeted brain regions, and how that brain activity correlates with particular behaviors and/or disease conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-pet-scans-brain-circuits-window.html Neuroscience Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:01:39 EST news284882490 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, and collaborators may have found a way to predict drug-addicted individuals' responses to drug-related stimuli.  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-eeg-insight-drug-related-choice-addiction.html Addiction Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:27:32 EST news272100439 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have revealed a new connection between drug addiction and a distinct part of the brain that may govern motivation. The research, published October 23, 2012, in Translational Psychiatry as an Advance Online Publication, shows that individuals addicted to cocaine have abnormal functioning of the midbrain, a brain region responsible for releasing dopamine in the presence of important stimuli, such as food, to make individuals repeat the behaviors that would result in obtaining these stimuli again. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-mental-fatigue-impairs-midbrain-function.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:19:03 EST news271667933 Brain scans of two strains of mice imbibing significant quantities of alcohol reveal serious shrinkage in some brain regions - but only in mice lacking a particular type of receptor for dopamine, the brain's "reward" chemical. The study, conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and published in the May 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, now online, provides new evidence that these dopamine receptors, known as DRD2, may play a protective role against alcohol-induced brain damage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-alcohol-critical-brain-regions-genetically.html Medical research Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:00:09 EST news248541266 Scientists investigating the interactions, or binding patterns, of a major tumor-suppressor protein known as p53 with the entire genome in normal human cells have turned up key differences from those observed in cancer cells. The distinct binding patterns reflect differences in the chromatin (the way DNA is packed with proteins), which may be important for understanding the function of the tumor suppressor protein in cancer cells. The study was conducted by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and is published in the December 15 issue of the journal Cell Cycle. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-analysis-tumor-suppressor-interactions-genome-human.html Cancer Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:30:02 EST news241867703 The more gray matter you have in the decision-making, thought-processing part of your brain, the better your ability to evaluate rewards and consequences. That may seem like an obvious conclusion, but a new study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory is the first to show this link between structure and function in healthy people — and the impairment of both structure and function in people addicted to cocaine. The study appears in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-gray-brain-center-linked-ability.html Neuroscience Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:42:51 EST news241796563