'Molecular Recorder' would reveal secrets of brain development

For the first time, a primitive movie has been encoded in -- and then played back from -- DNA in living cells. Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health say it is a major step toward a "molecular recorder" that may someday make it possible to get read-outs, for example, of the changing internal states of neurons as they develop.

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SEATTLE, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation announced today the award of Allen Distinguished Investigator (ADI) grants to six groups of researchers with projects at the frontier of one of the most challenging roadblocks in neuroscience: growing mature human brain cells in the laboratory. The projects are funded at a total of $7.5 million over three years. 

"This new cohort of Allen Distinguished Investigators and their research is especially...

Czupryn et al. "Transplanted Hypothalamic Neurons Restore Leptin Signaling and Ameliorate Obesity in db/db Mice" Science, 2011.

We'll start with the db/db mouse [...]. This mouse is genetically designed to develop severe morbid obesity and diabetes soon after birth. This is because it lacks a receptor for a hormone called leptin. Leptin is a hormone that plays a major role in appetite and metabolism. Decreasing your sensitivity to leptin, by decreasing leptin receptors, say (as in the the db/db mouse), produces striking obesity and...

It’s a devastating disease, changing behavior, causing uncontrolled movements, blindness, coma, and, finally, death. And we all have the makings of it in our heads.

When it topples cows, it’s known as mad cow disease. The human form is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In sheep, it’s scrapie. It’s a rare malady caused by a misshapen protein known as prion protein, or PrP. The big mystery is why people, cows, sheep, and other mammals have so much of the protein in their bodies, particularly in the brain.

“It’s intriguing to find that PrP, which,...