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THURSDAY, Jan. 17, 2008 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified the gene responsible for creating the brain's thinking center, in a finding that could one day help people with brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.
The gene, called Lhx2, tells stem cells in the developing brain to form the cerebral cortex, which controls functions such as language, decision-making and vision, according to a University of California, Irvine, study published in the Jan. 18 issue of Science. Without the Lhx2 gene, these cells wouldn't form, the researchers said.
"This new understanding of Lhx2's role in cortical development can potentially be used in stem cell research efforts to grow new cortical neurons that can replace damaged ones in the brain," Dr. Edwin Monuki, an assistant professor of pathology at the university, said in a prepared statement.
"This finding has implications for continuing efforts to help people recover from a stroke or slow the progress of neurodegenerative diseases," he said.
Researchers in Monuki's lab are now trying to activate Lhx2 genes in neural stem cells to prompt the growth of cortical cells. If successful, their efforts could led to clinical studies that could one day help treat patients, he said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about the brain.


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An Obamacare disconnect in N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolinians came out in droves for Obamacare enrollment, signing up at a rate that beat nearly every other red state. But that doesn't mean they're going to come out for the law — or the Democratic senator who supported it — at the voting booth in November.
More than any other state, North Carolina may represent the huge disconnect between Obamacare's success in getting people health insurance and its failure to help the Democratic politicians who voted for the law.
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The Tar Heel State signed up more than 357,000 people — one-third of those eligible for the new health insurance exchange. Yet President Barack Obama's health law remains a major liability for Sen. Kay Hagan, who faces one of the toughest reelection races for any Senate Democrat this year, a true toss-up fight against North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis. He misses no chance to tie her to Obama and the Affordable Care Act, forcing her to calibrate both how to defend a law she voted for and how to distance herself from it.
( A POLITICO special series: All Policy is Local - Health Care)
The North Carolina dynamic reflects a national problem for the Obama administration in this midterm election: Despite the solid numbers — 8 million enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans, and 6.7 million signed up for Medicaid — they just can't move the dial on political support for Obamacare.
The state had the third-highest rate of enrollment among states that decided not to set up their own exchange — only Florida and Maine came out ahead of it.
White House allies mobilized against Republican state leaders who had obstructed the law, organizing volunteers, outreach staff and local advocates to help people sign up. The administration sent more than $3 million to fund enrollment assistance workers known as navigators — more money than it sent to most other states. Clinics and health facilities also worked hard to get their uninsured patients covered. The numbers were strong, even though the Republican state leaders would not expand Medicaid, which could have covered up to a half-million more — a decision that Hagan criticizes.
Many people who enrolled in North Carolina and elsewhere in the country report mixed feelings about their new Obamacare health plans or the costs. The individual mandate, and the threat of a penalty, drove many sign-ups. A polling report by PerryUndem, an opinion research firm that specializes in health care, found that 40 percent of people in one focus group say they might not have signed up without the mandate. But neither an unpopular mandate nor worries about the expense are a political advantage.
( Also on POLITICO: Verdict is in: Obamacare lowers expenses)
One major reason that enrollment is not translating to a political boost — at least not yet — is that the groups that worked to sign people up, such as Enroll America, made a decision to keep insurance coverage as far from politics and "Obamacare" as possible. They kept the conversation focused on the value of health insurance, the ban on denials for pre-existing conditions and the tax subsidies available to make coverage more affordable.
While that helped the administration reach the pivotal 8 million point, many of the newly covered don't associate their own insurance status with Obamacare — or at least not the political debate around the law, a phenomenon that Mike Perry, a partner at PerryUndem, called a "split personality."
"You see the disconnect of the personal benefit to them and changing their thinking around the law," he said of the focus groups he's done with Obamacare enrollees. They view the two issues on different planes. The insurance, he said, "is a personal thing. It is personally benefiting them and it has nothing to do with the law that they don't understand."
( Also on POLITICO: Next ACA threat: September surprise)
That disconnect is haunting Hagan, who doesn't go out of the way to tout her vote for Obamacare — what Tillis calls "Kay Hagan's Obamacare Dodge." She often keeps her comments focused on a piece of it, the failure of state Republicans, including Tillis, to expand Medicaid. Her campaign website doesn't feature Obamacare, except for provisions that affect women's health, and even there she doesn't link them clearly to the president's health law.
Hagan was not available for an interview during a reporter's recent visit here. Her campaign spokeswoman downplayed the controversy over Obamacare, and stressed its more popular benefits.
"This is one of many issues in this election," spokeswoman Sadie Weiner said. "Like all the issues, it is a strong contrast between Kay's work to make common-sense fixes to the health care law to make it work better, and Tillis, who brags about rejecting health care for 500,000 people and who would take us back to a time when women were charged more than men, seniors paid more for prescriptions and people could be denied care because of a pre-existing condition."
The law's trade-offs even weigh on its supporters, like Jeremy Reynolds. He volunteered with Enroll America, standing outside grocery stores and Kmarts to encourage people to get covered, and even signed up for his own subsidized policy. But when he used his new coverage to get treatment for a pinched nerve he found it a "hassle."

subset: commoncrawl


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In every Michael Bay movie there's this massive dramatic climax punctuated by big explosions. Well, that's exactly what happened with him and "Transformers" star Megan Fox, forcing the two mega-forces to part ways before "Transformers 3."
This came even as filmmakers had a script ready with Fox in it for the next movie. But then boom, one last little bit of heat and it was over.
"It was one of those things that built to a pressure point," producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Comingsoon.net. "I think she knew and we did. I think we all tried really hard to make it work together. It just wasn't working."
Fox and the filmmakers parted ways at the 11th hour both sides claiming they did the breaking up. There was certainly no love lost between the two who created as much fireworks offscreen as the evil robots did onscreen. Finally they decided to simply end the war.
But "Transformers 3" has its new hottie in the form of Victoria's Secrets hottie Rosie Huntington-Whiteley -- who will no doubt look just as good running from robots (and, um, acting) as Fox did. And rest assured we'll see Megan Fox on the cover of Maxim promoting a new blockbuster in a skin-tight outfit very soon.
So the universe sort of veered out of control for a minute. But now it's back to normal. Just like in "Transformers!"
Di Bonaventura added that he thinks "Transformers 3" will likely be the last Bay-helmed installment of the series, which put a lot of bums in seats but never made the critics happy. Paramount and the toy company Hasbro might continue with a new series of movies with another director.
"It may not be the end of the line of "Transformers" for Hasbro and Paramount," he said. " (For) Michael, I'm sure it is. He's spent a lot of years working on one thing."