I haven't seen something so beautiful in quite some time. This fox hears its prey an uses its years to home in on the location. Once it has done this, it simply pounces head first into the snow for another win. Enjoy!

Npas4: This protein regulates the formation of inhibitory synapses between neurons. The inhibitory activity of neurons is regulated by a particular switch. This is a protein involved in the formation and maintenance of synapses in regulating selectively switching the electrical signal between nerve cells. Its name is Npas4 and was discovered by researchers from the Children's Hospital in Boston this week to publish their study in Nature. In particular, the protein in question is a transcription factor, that is a molecule that can activate or deactivate specific genes. Those which would be linked to Npas4 are more than 270. When the protein is produced in large quantities, we are seeing an increase in the number of inhibitory synapses on the surface of nerve cells. But what induces the production of high levels of Npas4? According to the researchers this is a reaction to excitatory synaptic. "It is as if the same excitement triggers a program to rebalance the brain with inhibition," says Michael Greenberg, coordinator of the study, which continues: "The mice in which the protein is suppressed, in fact, have neurological problems: are anxious, hyperactive and more subject to seizures. " The discovery could help researchers in studying these disorders. Inhibition, in fact, plays an important role in brain development.

A new technique, developed in the laboratories of the Foundation San Raffaele Biomedical Park, facilitates the process of regeneration of muscle tissue. Stem cells, modified at the level of genes, could permit the recovery of tissue degenerated from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Dmd), even when the disease is in an advanced stage. This is a further step towards developing a therapy, which is being developed for some years by researchers of the Foundation San Raffaele Biomedical Park of Castel Romano, coordinated by Giulio Cossu, University of Milan. The research, published in Nature Medicine, was conducted by Cesare Gargioli and Marcello Coletta, along with Fabrizio de Grandis and Stefano Cannata at the Roman Tor Vergata. From previous studies and experiments on animal models it is known that mesangioblasti, stem cells normally associated with blood vessels, are able to spread easily and merge with and into the muscle tissue regenerating it (cell therapy). In advanced stages, however, this treatment had so far proven ineffective because of difficulties to penetrate between the muscle fibers. The degeneration, in fact, is accompanied by a process of inflammation followed by scarring tissue that impedes the provision of blood (and thus oxygen) to the muscles. Therefore, the muscle fibers are replaced with fatty tissue. To overcome the obstacle, the researchers genetically modified cells derived from the tendons (fibroblasts) so as to make them express the protein metalloproteasi 9 (Mmp9), a molecule that can degrade collagen that accumulates between fibres degeneration.

A study conducted by an Italian and published on Pnas shows that healthy cells, if required to "diet", have an increased resistance to stress caused by the drugs compared with those ill. Fasting can be a weapon against the heavy effects of chemotherapy. Just as the fight against cancer concentrates its efforts on the so-called magic bullets, drugs capable of selectively target diseased cells from laboratories of the University of Southern California shows a new paradigm: protect healthy cells and then go furiously only against those sick . A team led by biologist Italian Valter Longo, which involved the United States laboratories and the hospital Gaslini of Genoa, has discovered a kind of magic screen that healthy cells (as a result of caloric restriction) have as a defense against chemotherapy. The results of the study appeared on Pnas Early Edition (here a link to the video.)

The rodents, as primates, are able to learn simple abstract principles for later use in different situations... A long considered exclusive to primates appears in reality shared by other species. Having already been demonstrated in some birds in fact, the ability to apply abstract rules just learned, and to to adapt to new situations was also observed in mice. The study, published in a number of Science, was conducted by Robin Murphy of University College London. The experiments were carried out by subjecting the animals to visual and acoustic stimuli. In the first phase mice, divided into three groups, have responded to three different sequences of visual stimuli, consisting of the sequence of light and dark. For each group only a sequence was associated with the food. After an initial period of "training", the mice were able to distinguish between those identifying sequences associated with reward.

Cloned cells were transplanted into the brain of mice who suffered from this disease and they replaced sick neurons. The success of therapeutic cloning in mice. Researchers of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, led by neuro-scientist Lorenz Studer, have treated the guinea pigs suffering from Parkinson with the transplantation of embryonic stem cells obtained from the skin of rodents themselves sick. The experiment, described in Nature Medicine, not only has recorded cases of rejection, but also significant improvements in the evolution of clinical pathology. The group Studer - after having caused lesions in the brains of mice that would determine the same effects of Parkinson's disease - has transferred the nuclei of cells inside the tail skin cell mouse egg "emptied" of its nucleus, through the technique known as therapeutic cloning (or Scnt, Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer). The cloned cells, cultivated, were then developed into blastocysts. The researchers thus generated 187 lines of embryonic stem cells from 24 different mice, most of which later differentiate into neurons capable of producing dopamine.

Robo4, present in the cells of the blood vessel wall, may improve or prevent the consequences of eye diseases The age-related ocular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in people over 65 years old, and retinopathy lead to total loss of sight in most of the patients of diabetes, about 21 million in the world. In particular, the degeneration and the destabilization of the vessel wall causes many times a loss of liquid and, consequently, severe inflammation that can lead to blindness. A new protein, named Robo4, identified in cells in the wall of blood vessels, may prevent these anomalies and help reduce or even prevent various vascular diseases related to an increase. The study, conducted by Dean Li and colleagues at the University of Utah, in the United States, was published in Nature.