Who hasn't been bitten by a mosquito?  For many, that mosquito bite could be deadly.  In the current issue of Cell, Christopher Potter reviews recent studies that combat mosquito attacks by targeting the mosquito's nose.   Potter, CJ. “Stop the Biting: Targeting a Mosquito's Sense of Smell.” Cell 156, no. 5 (2014): 878–881....

New research by Xinzhong Dong's lab published in the current issue of Neuron demonstrates that sensitized TRPV1 activity at the central projections of primary spinal cord sensory neurons, spurred by serotonergic inputs from brainstem descending fibers, contributes to nerve injured induced pain. Kim et al. developed a novel imaging technique which allowed them to specifically monitor neuronal activities of sensory nerve fibers in the skin and spinal cord. In collaboration with Dr. ...

The Kolodkin lab reports in the current issue of Neuron that the β1-Integrin laminin receptor is required for retinal ganglion cell (RGC) positioning and reorganization into a single-cell retinal ganglion cell layer (GCL) layer. Furthermore, Roccomagno et al show that β1-Integrin signaling within migrating GCL cells requires Cas signaling-adaptor proteins, and in the absence of β1-Integrin or Cas function, retinal neurons form ectopic cell clusters beyond the inner-limiting membrane (ILM...

Hey-Kyoung Lee's recent Neuron paper was featured on "All Things Considered" on NPR.   An excerpt from the story: A few days in the dark can improve an animal's hearing, scientists report this week in the journal Neuron. This temporary loss of visual input seems to trigger favorable changes in areas of the brain that process auditory information, they say....

The Lee lab reports in Neuron that visual deprivation leads to improved frequency selectivity as well as increased frequency and intensity discrimination performance in primary auditory cortex A1 neurons. They demonstrate in vitro that in adults visual deprivation strengthens thalamocortical (TC) synapses in A1, but not in primary visual cortex (V1). Because deafening potentiated TC synapses in V1, but not A1, crossmodal TC potentiation seems to be a general property of adult cortex. T...