Amir Lawen

Biomedical Engineer, Technion | Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Behavior, Columbia University | Medical Student at the Technion

[nature @Nature]

Just two doses of psilocybin administered before chemotherapy completely prevented mice from developing neuropathy

https://t.co/SPHcTBuTrD

[Yasmine El-Shamayleh @ElShamayleh]

Excited to share the lab’s first publication, co-led by talented postdoc Chuyi Su @ChuyiSu

We leveraged cell type-specific optogenetics in the macaque cerebral cortex to elucidate the role of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in visual form processing.

https://t.co/wrn25hWEWU

[Amir Lawen @AmirLawen]

@d_g_clark @FlatironInst Congratulations David! Well deserved :)

[Scott Marek @smarek0502]

SES dominates childhood brain organization. Zip code matters most.

These findings have consumed my mind daily, with Darwin’s quote living rent free in my head: “if the misery of the poor not be caused by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great be our sin.”

[Scott Marek @smarek0502]

What matters most for childhood brain organization?

We analyzed 649 variables.
The answer: Socioeconomics (SES); with brain patterns pointing at sleep & stress as drivers.

Even brain-IQ associations were better explained by SES confounding.

In Science: https://t.co/7zDtxSlDBn

[Ruben Laukkonen @RubenLaukkonen]

Abstraction is insufficient for consciousness.

[Samuel Hume @DrSamuelBHume]

How EGFR inhibitors transformed outcomes in EGFR-mutated non–small-cell lung cancer

[Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute @ZuckermanBrain]

How do brains change with age? By analyzing brain activity throughout the lives of mice, @ItamarKahn @GaganWig @ezra_wn & team found that the rodent’s brain ages similarly to that of a human. Studying mice could therefore be a powerful way to learn more about how our brains decline as we grow old.

https://t.co/xVEsLUKETC

@Columbia @UT_Dallas #neuroscience

[Dr. Dominic Ng @DrDominicNg]

A signal in your brain - fired AFTER exercise - decides whether your body adapts at all.

Block it? Training did nothing.
Boost it? 2x the work output and 3x the endurance gains.

This might be the most important exercise paper in years. Here's what they found 🧵

[Dr. Dominic Ng @DrDominicNg]

Pets completely protect against mental decline from living alone.

9-year study of 7,945 older adults: People living alone with pets kept their mental sharpness just as well as those living with family.

Your dog or cat might be saving your brain.

[Samuel Hume @DrSamuelBHume]

Breastfeeding tends to lower the risk of breast cancer

This seems to be because breastfeeding triggers development of (CD8+) T cells, that stay within the breast long term – and protect against cancer

[Samuel Hume @DrSamuelBHume]

Recent Covid vaccination is associated with better response to immune checkpoint blockade, and therefore better survival, in lung cancer and melanoma

(This are observational data in humans, and were replicated in controlled experiments in mice)

If untargeted vaccines can do this, imagine what targeted cancer vaccines could do...

[Amir Lawen @AmirLawen]

@FirasMawase Congratulations Firas! Always an inspiration :)

[Amir Lawen @AmirLawen]

@HannahPaynePhD Congratulations!!

[Andrés Villegas @and_villegas1]

Excited to share our latest research on the hippocampal CA2 region's role in social aggression! 🧠🐭

In this pre-print, we provide a unified view of the two major roles previously ascribed to CA2: social memory and the promotion of aggression. Our findings reveal a neural mechanism for the long-standing observation in the literature that social novelty can enhance aggression.

📄: https://t.co/lauK0dvprd

[Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute @ZuckermanBrain]

The brain can regulate immunity to a striking degree, capable of detecting, boosting & suppressing inflammation. The findings in @Nature from our own Charles Zuker and colleagues may one day help treat many disorders of the immune system.
@NIH @NIAIDNews
https://t.co/qNuNf4ecRZ

[Gutfreund Lab @GutfreundS]

We advanced a pioneering method for highly precise brain surgeries in small animals. In our new publication we report about the technique and it's successful application in barn owls, quails and mice.
Enjoy your reading!
@biorxivpreprint
@BenEngelhard
https://t.co/FyU8xlbWUT