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This directed case study follows two college roommates, Darrell and Anthony, who have just returned to school after winter vacation. They share that their ageing fathers are concerned about their declining faculties and are amused by their fathers' efforts to reverse the process.  Darrell's dad plays "brain games" on the computer while Anthony's father believes running will slow his memory decline. Intrigued, the roommates search through their biopsychology class notes to find out whether their fathers are correct. They review the topics of synaptic formation and plasticity, including axonal and dendritic development, and chemical factors in the brain that promote the survival and growth of neurons or stop the genetically programmed death of neurons. Based on research findings, students reading this case will decide whether Darrell and Anthony's fathers are correct in their assertions. The case is appropriate for a wide variety of courses including introductory anatomy or physiology, or for upper-division biopsychology, biology, or neuroscience courses.

4 min video going over the idea backed by research that your brain really is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

Panobinostat is a new type of drug that works by blocking an enzyme responsible for modifying DNA at the epigenetic level. Epigenetics refers to chemical marks on DNA itself or on the protein "spools" called histones that package DNA. These marks influence the activity of genes without changing the underlying sequence, essentially acting as volume knobs for genes. Earlier genomic studies showed that about 80 percent of DIPG tumors carry a mutation that alters a histone protein, resulting in changes to the way DNA is packaged and tagged with those chemical marks. This faulty epigenetic regulation results in activation of growth-promoting genes that should have been turned off, and shutdown of others that should have acted as brakes to cell multiplication. Cancer is the result. Panobinostat appears to work by restoring proper functioning of the cells' chemical tagging system.

For Collinge, this led to a worrying conclusion: that the plaques might have been transmitted, alongside the prions, in the injections of growth hormone-the first evidence that Alzheimer's could be transmitted from one person to another. If true, that could have far-reaching implications: the possibility that 'seeds' of the amyloid-β protein involved in Alzheimer's could be transferred during other procedures in which fluid or tissues from one person are introduced into another, such as blood transfusions, organ transplants and other common medical procedures.