Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Back from Prince Edward Island…

Where I was at a biotech conference and watched Mason’s own Professor Nadine Kabbani give a bang up excellent talk on her latest work with the alpha-7 nicotinic receptor (which happens to be G-protein linked).

I also got a good view of the progress (or lack of it) in the area of neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer’s). It’s frustrating because so much money has been invested and there has been so very little produced for the pipeline (and the patients).

Tomorrow we dive back into building Krasnow’s third decade of success….

EU neuroscientists express discord….

About the EU’s flagship Human Brain Project, story here. Money quote from the Nature news piece:

The escalating row has dismayed the HBP’s internal and external advisory boards, which had hoped to resolve tensions that, they acknowledge, arose partly from non-transparent management. Sten Grillner, a systems neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a member of the internal advisory board, says that it is “disappointing” that the issue has exploded so publicly. “I hope it will not be damaging,” he adds.

Transparency is everything when it comes to funding Big Science I think….