We're resharing an episode from October 2022. How are habits – both good and bad – formed in the brain, and what role do habits play in diseases of the brain? These are some of the questions neuroscientist, Talia Lerner, PhD, is investigating in her lab. Her recent study, published in Cell Reports, may change the overall understanding of how habits are formed and could be broken.   

Since this episode was first recorded in fall 2022, Lerner’s team has published new research looking at sex differences. In a paper in Neuropsychopharmacology, her team discovered how novel sex-specific mechanisms control how stress hormones impact dopamine transmission and motivation. 

Uniting scientists and harnessing the power of the immune system to fight disease is at the heart of the Center for Human Immunobiology (CHI). Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD, leads the center, and she is also the chief of Allergy and Immunology in the Department of Medicine.  

Since this episode was first recorded in fall 2022, Eisenbarth's team has launched a clinical trial to study a new treatment for food allergy. She has also brought together more than 150 trainees and faculty through the CHI. Here, she discusses the variety of immunology research taking place within the center and the continued work to discover and translate innovative science into cures for immune-related diseases. 

An experimental drug called NU-9 was invented at Northwestern University by Richard Silverman, PhD. It has been approved for clinical trials for the treatment of ALS and found to improves neuron health in animal models of Alzheimer's disease according to a new Northwestern Medicine study published in PNAS.

This discovery is giving scientists hope that the drug could be effective in multiple neurodegenerative diseases by addressing the underlying mechanisms of these diseases. Silverman and Northwestern University Alzheimer disease expert, William Klein, PhD, discuss the potential of NU-9 in this episode.  

A Northwestern Medicine clinical trial led by Rod Passman, MD, could improve the way we care for millions of people with atrial fibrillation, but it is facing an unexpected challenge. There has been a pause in federal funding to Northwestern University that could impact this study's progress. While the trial has not been ordered to stop, all National Institutes of Health funding to Northwestern University has been frozen, raising questions about how long this potential life-saving work can go on without a resolution.  

Each year, more than 800,000 Americans suffer a heart attack and many of those who survive are left with irreversible scarring and the slow progression towards heart failure. In this episode, Edward Thorp, PhD, explains how his team is exploring immune cells that influence the heart’s ability to heal after such injuries. In Thorp’s lab, they are uncovering fundamental molecular mechanisms by which the immune system regulates wound repair, reduces inflammation and regenerates tissue. 

New evidence shows that a one-time intervention can lead to lasting improvement in the lives of young people struggling with mental health problems. In this episode, Jessica Schleider, PhD, associate professor of Medical Social Sciences, explains how she is using this approach to scale single-session interventions (SSIs) to reach more people in need of mental health services.

In this episode, Minjee Kim, MD, shares results of recent studies she has conducted to better understand the role of inadequate sleep on long-term metabolic health in pregnant women and middle-aged adults. She also discusses a new AI-based intervention that could bring a better night of sleep to those who need it. 

In this episode, Rodrigo Braga, PhD, explains recent advances in his Human Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, using precision functional MRI technology, that is helping us better understand how the brain is working. He details recent findings published in Science Advances that provide new understanding of how the brain works during and after social interactions, which could lead to new ways to treat anxiety and depression. 

What could be the world's smallest pacemaker was recently developed at Northwestern University and details of the device were published in the journal Nature. This incredible innovation, about the size of a grain of rice, from the lab of John Rogers, PhD, is designed to be an alternative to bulky, wired temporary pacemakers. In this episode, Rogers discusses how Northwestern engineers and Feinberg investigators came together to develop this innovative solution to meet a need for patients. 

A Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Medicine, used a new technique called spatial transcriptomics to examine the brain’s response to Alzheimer's therapies, revealing new molecular targets that could enhance the effectiveness of current therapies and not just slow the disease, but potentially improve patient outcomes.

David Gate, PhD, assistant professor of Neurology in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology and director of the Abrams Research Center on Neurogenomics, led this research.