Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/393898
ByKarlRitter AssociatedPress STOCKHOLM A U.S.-Brit- ish scientist who grew up in the South Bronx and a husband-and-wife research team from Norway won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discovering the brain's navigation system — the inner GPS that helps us find our way in the world — revelations could lead to advances in diagnosing Al- zheimer's. The research by John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser repre- sents a "paradigm shift" in neuroscience that could help researchers under- stand the sometimes severe spatial memory loss associ- ated with Alzheimer's dis- ease, the Nobel Assembly said. "This year's Nobel Lau- reates have discovered a positioning system, an 'in- ner GPS' in the brain, that makes it possible to orient ourselves in space," the as- sembly said. O'Keefe, 74, a dual U.S. and British citizen at the University College London, discovered the first compo- nent of this system in 1971 when he found that a cer- tain type of nerve cell was always activated when a rat was at a certain place in a room. He demonstrated that these place cells were build- ing up a map of the envi- ronment, not just register- ing visual input. Decades later, in 2005, May-Britt and Edvard Moser, married neuroscien- tists at the Norwegian Uni- versity of Science and Tech- nology in Trondheim, iden- tified another type of nerve cell — the grid cell — that generates a coordinate sys- tem for precise positioning and path-finding, the as- sembly said. Monday's award was the fourth time that a mar- ried couple has shared a Nobel Prize and the sec- ond time in the medicine category. "This is crazy," an ex- cited May-Britt Moser, 51, told The Associated Press by telephone from Trond- heim. "This is such a great honor for all of us and all the people who have worked with us and supported us," she said. "We are going to continue and hopefully do even more groundbreaking work in the future." Her 52-year-old husband didn't immediately find out about the prize because he was flying Monday to the Max Planck Institute in Mu- nich to demonstrate their research. Edvard Moser only dis- covered he had won after he landed in Munich, turned on his cellphone and saw a flood of emails, text mes- sages and missed calls. "It's a great moment. I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to this, including everyone who is and has been in our lab," he said later Monday. "And it shows that it is possible to create good science, if you do it in the right way. I think it's a big stimulation for science both at home in Norway and throughout the world." The Nobel Assembly said the discoveries marked a shift in scientists' under- standing of how special- ized cells work together to perform complex cogni- tive tasks. They have also opened new avenues for understanding cognitive functions such as memory, thinking and planning. "Thanks to our grid and place cells, we don't have to walk around with a map to find our way each time we visit a city, because we have that map in our head," said Juleen Zierath, chair of the medicine prize committee. "I think, without these cells, we would have a really hard time to survive." O'Keefe told the AP he was working at home when his office called to say "there's a gentleman from Sweden who wants to have a word with you." "Before I called him, I took a long, deep breath," O'Keefe said, speaking at his office at University Col- lege London. O'Keefe was born in Har- lem and raised in the South Bronx. "If you can survive the South Bronx, you can survive anything," he said. He moved to England for postdoctoral training and found the place cells in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. The Mosers, meanwhile, identified the grid cells in a nearby section of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex. O'Keefe said his work could be used as a basis for investigating Alzheimer's. "So we can not only use brain imaging to see the earliest signs of the disease in this part of the brain, but we can begin to see how it is affecting their memory, particularly their spatial memory," he said. David Foster, a neuro- scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said O'Keefe's discovery of place cells was contro- versial in 1971 but became widely accepted over the next few decades. "He founded the field," Foster said. Joshua Jacobs, who stud- ies place and grid cells in humans at Drexel Univer- sity in Philadelphia, said with further understanding of how the internal GPS sys- tem works, scientists may be able to develop drugs or devices to help people with Alzheimer's who have lost their ability to navigate. "It's a little far off," he said. "We're not doing that yet, but that is one payoff that could come from this." All three Nobel laureates won Columbia University's Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize last year for their discover- ies. They will split the No- bel prize money of 8 mil- lion Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million), with half to O'Keefe and the other half to the Mosers. The Nobel awards in physics, chemistry, litera- ture and peace will be an- nounced later this week and the economics prize will be announced next Mon- day. Created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901. The win- ners collect their awards on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896. PRIZE 3 win medicine Nobel for discovering brain's GPS By Josh Funk Associated Press OMAHA,NEB. An American video journalist who con- tracted Ebola while work- ing in Liberia has arrived at a Nebraska hospital, where he will be treated for the deadly disease. Ashoka Mukpo, 33, ar- rived by ambulance Mon- day at the Nebraska Med- ical Center, where he will be kept in a specialized con- tainment unit built specifi- cally to handle this type of illness. Mukpo was working in Liberia as a freelance cam- eraman for NBC News when he became ill last week. He is the fifth American with Ebola to return to the U.S. for treatment during the latest outbreak, which the World Health Organization estimates has killed more than 3,400 people. Meanwhile, a Libe- rian man with Ebola who started showing symptoms while visiting the U.S. is in critical condition at a Dal- las hospital. Mukpo was able to walk off the plane under his own power Monday before being loaded onto a stretcher for the ambulance ride to the hospital. His parents traveled from Rhode Island to Nebraska to be with Mukpo, but dur- ing his treatment they will have to rely on a video chat system in his hospital room to communicate with him. Doctors at the isolation unit — the largest of four in the U.S. — will evaluate Mukpo before determin- ing how to treat him. They said they will apply the les- sons learned while treating American aid worker Rick Sacra, who was allowed to return home to Massachu- setts after three weeks, on Sept. 25. Sacra received an exper- imental drug called TKM- Ebola, as well as two blood transfusions from another American aid worker who recovered from Ebola at an Atlanta hospital. The trans- fusions are believed to help a patient fight off the vi- rus because the survivor's blood carries antibodies for the disease. Sacra also re- ceived supportive care, in- cluding IV fluids and ag- gressive electrolyte man- agement. But doctors have said they can't be sure what helped Sacra recover be- cause he was receiving mul- tiple treatments. After Sacra was released, the Nebraska Medical Cen- ter set up a separate lab within the isolation unit, so test results would be available more quickly and samples wouldn't have to be sent across campus to the main lab. Sacra was admitted Sat- urday to UMass Memorial Medical Center after he came in complaining about a cough and low-grade fever and was put in isolation as a precaution. The hospital said week- end test results came back negative for Ebola, and the Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention con- firmed that Sacra's symp- toms were not caused by the virus. In Dallas, another man who recently traveled to the U.S. from Liberia was listed in critical condition Sunday. Thomas Eric Dun- can has been hospitalized at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital since Sept. 28. Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC's director, said he was aware that Duncan's health had "taken a turn for the worse," but he declined to describe Duncan's condi- tion further. The virus that causes Eb- ola is not airborne and can only be spread through di- rect contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected per- son who is showing symp- toms. Duncan arrived in Dal- las on Sept. 20 and fell ill a few days later. Officials say 10 people definitely had close contact with Duncan and a further 38 may have been around him when he was showing symptoms of the disease. TREATMENT Journalist with Ebola arrives at Nebraska hospital ASSOCIATEDPRESS An ambulance transports Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, to the Nebraska Medical Center's specialized isolation unit on Monday, in Omaha, Neb., where he will be treated for the deadly disease. ASSOCIATED PRESS Joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine professor John O'Keefe, a dual U.S. and British citizen, speaks as he is interviewed by The Associated Press in an office he uses at the University College London (UCL), in London on Monday. PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thankyou! www.lassenmedical.com lassenmedical.com 2450 Sister Mary Columba Drive Red Bluff, CA 96080 530 527-0414 Lassen Medical For the Expected, Unexpected and Everything in Between www.redbluff.mercy.org redbluff.mercy.org HealthierLivingw/ChronicConditions 5:30pm-8:00pm10/710/1410/21 Tuesdays Wright 888-628-1948 redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Waterbirth Class 6:30pm-8:30pm 10/8 Wednesday Columba 888-628-1948 redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Community Basic Life Support 6:00pm-10:00pm 10/14 Tuesday Columba 888-628-1948 redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Weekend Childbirth Class 6:00pm-9:00pm 10/17 Friday Columba 888-628-1948 redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Weekend Childbirth Class 8:00am-4:00pm 10/18 Saturday Columba 888-628-1948 redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events RANDAL S. ELLOWAY DDS IMPLANTDENTISTRY 2426 SO. MAIN ST., RED BLUFF 530-527-6777 Askyourselfthefollowingquestions: Are you missing one or more of your natural teeth? Do you have a complete or partial denture that is no longer completely comfortable? Have you ever been embarrassed by a denture or a bridge? If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, call us today at (530) 527-6777 to schedule an evaluation appointment. We would be pleased to evaluate your oral health and discuss treatment options with you. FACT SHEET ON DENTAL IMPLANTS DENTAL IMPLANTS: * are the most advanced tooth replacement system ever devised *help preserve jawbone to prevent the appearance of premature aging *look and function like natural teeth *are placed/restored in the doctor's office with minimal discomfort *improves comfort, appearance, speech * have a 95% success rate * allow you to eat the foods you love and talk, laugh and smile with confidence * represent a conservative treatment option-- adjacent teeth are left untouched * never develop decay * can provide great stability for lower denture * can completely eliminate the need for a denture * can help people of any age * give patients a third set of teeth that are natural looking and very long-lasting SCHEDULEYOUR MAMMOGRAM Like Your Life Depends on it. Joinus Wednesday, October 29, 6- 8pm, at the St.Elizabeth Imaging Center in Red Bluff, for our second annual Breast Assured event. Advance registration is recommended. Call today to schedule a mammogram and reserve your free spot at our event: 888.628.1948. visit redbluff.mercy.org HEALTH » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, October 7, 2014 MORE ATFACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4