April 11, 2014 - This Week's Consolidation of Advocacy News
News
House Passes Ryan Budget
April 10, 2014 | Politico
The House approved a fiscal 2015 budget on Thursday that would cut federal spending by $5 trillion and significantly revamp social welfare programs. This vote is one of the opening rounds in the budget process which will likely take the rest of the year to finalize. Though this budget represents the priorities of some members of Congress, the final budget will ultimately represent agreements made by the Senate, House, and the White House.
- Learn more about the appropriations process by watching SfN's webinar “The Federal Budget Process”
UCSF Doctor's Brain Health Registry Could Dramatically Cut Research Costs
April 8, 2014 | The Examiner
SfN member Michael Weiner, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco has launched Brain Health Registry, an online, open-door clearinghouse for brain health researchers. The website will be used to create a pool of potential research participants to reduce the time and cost of recruiting individuals with a brain injury or a neurological disease or disorder in hopes of developing therapies faster.
RIP, K.C.
April 6, 2014 | Slate
Kent Cochrane, the amnesiac known throughout the world of neuroscience and psychology as K.C., died last week at age 62 in his nursing home in Toronto. Cochrane will be remembered by many neuroscientists for changing the way the field understood how memories are made personally meaningful.
- Share this video with your elected officials called “Sketch of a Memory” from BrainFacts.org.
Policy
Congressmen Smith, Fattah Announce Bipartisan Bill to Boost Alzheimer's Research and Int'l Action Plan
April 4, 2014 | Digital Journal
Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Chaka Fattah (D-PA) introduced a bill that calls on the U.S. to both engage in and lead a coordinated, international effort to advance work for the treatment, prevention, and perhaps even a cure for Alzheimer's disease as well as other forms of dementia.
- Get more information on this bill.
Articles of Interest
Watch Proteins Do the Jitterbug
April 10, 2014 | New York Times
The popular animation "Inner Life of the Cell" has received an update. In the new version, a neuron packed with jittery proteins is featured. This animation more accurately portrays the complexity of molecular activity and how easy it is for it to go wrong in diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, that are the result of defective proteins.
- Read about the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus briefing held to educate members of Congress and staff about how the role of defective proteins in rare diseases informs research on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Paralyzed Men Move Again with Spinal Stimulation
April 8, 2014 | BBC
A group of neuroscientists from University of Louisville and the University of California report that four paralyzed men have been able to move their legs for the first time in years after electrical stimulation of their spinal cords.
- Set up a meeting with your legislature and share your neuroscience success stories.
Opinion
Neuroscientists, You Now Have No Excuse Not to Share Raw Data
April 7, 2014 | Science 2.0
SfN member Stephen Eglen and colleagues from the Cambridge Computational Biology Institute have developed a system allowing neurophysiologists to share raw data with each other, something they hope will generate new discoveries in the field.
- Check out NSF’s new website “Understanding the Brain” to learn more about how NSF will contribute to collect, visualize, analyze, model, store, and distribute BRAIN data.
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