Academic Transformations

An inspiration for women - a legend in her own time! Thank you for all the lessons.
RIP Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall, the famed chimpanzee researcher, has died. She was 91.

http://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/nation-world/chimpanzee-researcher-jane-goodall-dies/507-162cb449-cd29-44e1-adf0-4055d0ed8320?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_13News_Now_-_WVEC

Exciting breakthrough in understanding Autism!

Why is it increasing?
Are toxins affecting the rate?
Why is it higher in boys than girls?

Hope that science is getting closer🙏

🧠 Stanford researchers just reversed autism-like symptoms in mice by targeting one overlooked brain region—the reticular thalamic nucleus (RTN).

The RTN acts as a gatekeeper for sensory input. In mice modeling autism, it was found to be hyperactive, driving symptoms such as:

• Hypersensitivity to sounds and touch

• Social withdrawal

• Seizures

• Repetitive behaviors

By reducing this overactivity—using both an experimental seizure drug (Z944) and a brain-modulating technique called DREADD—scientists were able to restore typical behavior patterns. Even more striking: when researchers artificially increased RTN activity in healthy mice, they developed autism-like behaviors, showing how central this brain region may be.

The study also offers new insight into why epilepsy often co-occurs with autism, since both may involve disrupted thalamic circuitry.

⚡ While still in preclinical stages, this breakthrough points to a promising path for future, biology-based autism treatments. If confirmed in humans, it could represent one of the most precise therapeutic targets discovered so far.

📖 Source: Sung-Soo Jang, Fuga Takahashi & John R. Huguenard (2025). Reticular thalamic hyperexcitability drives autism spectrum disorder behaviors in the Cntnap2 model of autism. Science Advances.