nada

http://pressesc.com/01184528191_cure_for_fear

jenmobbs — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:28:25 +0000

MIT finds cure for fear

Submitted by Vidura Panditaratne on Sun, 2007-07-15 19:37.Sci | Non-geographical | News

MIT biochemists have identified a molecular mechanism behind fear, and successfully cured it in mice, according to an article in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers from MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory hope that their work could lead to the first drug to treat the millions of adults who suffer each year from persistent, debilitating fears – including hundreds of soldiers returning from conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Inhibiting a kinase, an enzyme that change proteins, called Cdk5 facilitates the extinction of fear learned in a particular context, Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and colleagues showed.

Conversely, the learned fear persisted when the kinase’s activity was increased in the hippocampus, the brain’s center for storing memories, the scientists found.

Cdk5, paired with the protein p35, helps new brain cells, or neurons, form and migrate to their correct positions during early brain development, and the MIT researchers looked at how Cdk5 affects the ability to form and eliminate fear-related memories.

“Remarkably, inhibiting Cdk5 facilitated extinction of learned fear in mice,” Tsai said. “This data points to a promising therapeutic avenue to treat emotional disorders and raises hope for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or phobia.”

Emotional disorders such as post-traumatic stress and panic attacks stem from the inability of the brain to stop experiencing the fear associated with a specific incident or series of incidents.

For some people, upsetting memories of traumatic events do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time, severely affecting their lives.

A study conducted by the Army in 2004 found that one in eight soldiers returning from Iraq reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to the National Center for PTSD in the United States, around eight percent of the population will have PTSD symptoms at some point in their lives. Some 5.2 million adults have PTSD during a given year, the center reports.

In the current research, genetically engineered mice received mild foot shocks in a certain environment and were re-exposed to the same environment without the foot shock.

The team found that mice with increased levels of Cdk5 activity had more trouble letting go of the memory of the foot shock and continued to freeze in fear.

The reverse was also true: in mice whose Cdk5 activity was inhibited, the bad memory of the shocks disappeared when the mice learned that they no longer needed to fear the environment where the foot shocks had once occurred.

“In our study, we employ mice to show that extinction of learned fear depends on counteracting components of a molecular pathway involving the protein kinase Cdk5,” Tsai concluded. “We found that Cdk5 activity prevents extinction, at least in part by negatively affecting the activity of another key kinase.”

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jenmobbs — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:11:30 +0000

Mayfield Fund’s Yogen Dalal on IIT, India and Entrepreneurship

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Audio | 23:25 | Posted by Kamla Bhatt | July 19th, 2007 5:28 pm

Yogen Dalal is the managing director at Mayfield Fund, in Silicon Valley. I caught up with Yogen at the Pan IIT Global meet, where we talked about IIT, Mayfield’s India strategy and entrepreneurship.

In the interview, Yogen answers some tough questions, like what to do if your venture fails, and how to handle failure, generally.

Yogen was part of Vint Cerf‘s team at Stanford, working on TCP/IP protocol. There, he co-authored the TCP specification. TCP/IP is what makes it possible for all of us to use the Internet today. Tune in to find out what Yogen has to say about his TCP/IP-related work as a graduate student at Stanford.

Yogen currently sits on the boards of Affinity Labs, Consorte, Packet Design, PacketHop, Podbridge and Revenue Science. Yogen’s investments include Arbor Software, BeVocal, BroadVision, Concur, Nuance, OuterBay, Packet Engines, Snapfish, TIBCO, Vantive and Whistle.

Yogen has an undergraduate degree from IIT, Mumbai and a PhD from Stanford University.

Tags: Yogen Dalal, Mayfield Fund, Silicon Valley, Pan IIT Global, entrepreneurship, Vint Cerf, TCP specification

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jenmobbs — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:58:14 +0000

July 19, 2007

Calacanis interviews famous angel investor Ron Conway

http://www.calacanis.com/2007/07/19/calacaniscast-beta-30/

Very interesting interview done by Jason Calacanis of Ron Conway who has invested in many of the companies we take for granted now. Fascinating interview. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, it’s a must watch. Heck, if you’re interested in hearing one of the smartest investors in the business, this is a great listen.

Filed under: Venture Capitalist, Investor, VC @ 11:46 pm #

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Seth’s Blog: Treating different customers differently

jenmobbs — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:38:48 +0000

Treating different customers differentlyI’ve gotten a lot of email about: Sprint may cancel your service if you call customer service too often.Apparently, about 1,000 people got this note. They weren’t delinquent in their bills, but they were calling in and complaining approximately 25 times a month.If you’re going to be obsessed with delighting customers, it’s a lot more efficient to focus on customers that are able to be delighted. That sounds like a tautology, but it’s actually a guiding principle for successful businesses. Hire nice people and attract satisfiable, gabby customers. Why not?These 1000 people were actually happy to be unhappy. They were unpleasable, and they weren’t helping either word of mouth or the ability of the call center folks to do good work.I think the mistake Sprint made was in only giving people one day’s notice. I probably would have given them a month or so… Turns out Sprint even gave them one month’s notice.What would happen if you fired (nicely) the very few customers that take your best effort but rarely appreciate it or spread the word?

Seth’s Blog: Treating different customers differently

Tags: sethgoddin customers

Seth’s Blog: Treating different customers differently

jenmobbs — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:38:19 +0000

Treating different customers differentlyI’ve gotten a lot of email about: Sprint may cancel your service if you call customer service too often.Apparently, about 1,000 people got this note. They weren’t delinquent in their bills, but they were calling in and complaining approximately 25 times a month.If you’re going to be obsessed with delighting customers, it’s a lot more efficient to focus on customers that are able to be delighted. That sounds like a tautology, but it’s actually a guiding principle for successful businesses. Hire nice people and attract satisfiable, gabby customers. Why not?These 1000 people were actually happy to be unhappy. They were unpleasable, and they weren’t helping either word of mouth or the ability of the call center folks to do good work.I think the mistake Sprint made was in only giving people one day’s notice. I probably would have given them a month or so… Turns out Sprint even gave them one month’s notice.What would happen if you fired (nicely) the very few customers that take your best effort but rarely appreciate it or spread the word?

Seth’s Blog: Treating different customers differently

Tags: sethgoddin customers