Scientists in India have been researching transplanting parts of the nervous system in order to help sufferers of Alzheimer's Disease. By replicating the disease's effects in rats, they've found that transplanting nerve-cells brings back the animals' ability to learn.

The researchers at India's National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences and National Centre for Biological Sciences first damaged the subiculum of the rats brain, which lead to the deterioration of the hippocampus. The shrinkage of the hippocampus during Alzheimer's disease is thought to lead to the loss of memory and learning, the most visible of disease's effects.

Once the rats had been brought to this Alzheimers-like state, the researchers took cultured lines of hippocampal cells — taken from newborn transgenic rats and cultured — and precisely injected them into the hippocampi of half the rodents. After two months, both batches of rats were run through standardized mazes. The rats that had received the injections were back to pre-damage levels of learning and recall, while those that hadn't received the transplants struggled to learn the course.

What seems to have happened is that the transplanted cells settled in an area of the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus, where they proceeded to help pump out growth factors which create an environment were neurons can grow. There was a threefold increase in neurotrophic and fibroblastic growth factor, which allowed the hippocampus to regenerate from the inflicted damage, and restored the rat's abilities to learn and remember to the level of un-damaged rats.

The implications of this research are astounding for sufferers of neurodegenerative diseases. This study is specifically designed as a precursor to further work with Alzheimer's, but altering the brain to create an environment where it can succeed in regenerating damaged components is a fascinating concept. These seedling transplants could revolutionize the way we look at repairing the brain, for a disease that effects millions.

[via APA, presented in Behavioral Neuroscience; image of rat hippocampus via University of Texas]

A team of researchers from the US, UK, and Papua New Guinea launched an expedition inside Mount Bosavi, a now-dormant volcano that last erupted 200,000 years ago. The team discovered more than 40 new species, including 16 new species of frog — one with fangs — three previously unrecorded species of fish, and the Bosavi Woolly Rat, which has no fear of humans and is believed to be the largest rat ever recorded. There are no cats or monkeys located in the Bosavi crater, so the crater's main predators are giant monitor lizards. Below are a handful of the new and endangered species discovered by the team.

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New Guinea [Guardian]

Bosavi Woolly Rat, believed to be the largest rat ever recorded
Fruit Dove
Iridescent Beetle
Spider Camouflaged as Lichen
Common Tube-Nosed Bat
Buff-Faced Pygmy Parrot
Litoria Sauroni
Striped Possum
Bosavi Silky Cuscus
Hairy Caterpillar
Two Black and Yellow Noctuids, which together resemble a snake
King Bird of Paradise

The first cool thing we've got is a robot controlled by pieces from a rat's heart. A couple of weeks ago, Discover magazine explained:

A team of researchers affixed heart tissue from a rat onto the body of the robot. When the tissue contracted, the robot's six horizontally aligned legs (see image) pulled together. When the tissue relaxed, the legs drew apart. The pulses propelled the robot forward through a solution at 100 micrometers per second (about 0.0002 mile per hour). The researchers hope to make other biocompatible devices that could one day carry clot-busting agents to clogged vessels.

We're also about to get a crop of robots controlled with rat brains, or at least simulated rat brains. Last year, New Scientist explained:

A robot controlled by a simulated rat brain has proved itself to be a remarkable mimic of rodent behaviour in series of classic animal experiments. The robot's biologically-inspired control software uses a functional model of "place cells". These are neurons in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that help real rats to map their environment. They fire when an animal is in a familiar location.

Alfredo Weitzenfeld, a roboticist at the ITAM technical institute in Mexico City, carried out the work by reprogramming an AIBO robot dog, made by Japanese firm Sony, with the rat-inspired control software. When placed inside a maze, the robot learnt to navigate towards a "reward" in a remarkably similar way to real rodents, using landmarks to explore.