For depression, and other mental health disorders, the era of precision medicine has yet to arrive. Symptoms are “very poorly reflective of the underlying biology,” Amit Etkin told BioWorld. Depression can manifest through multiple different symptoms that differ both between and within cultures.

PARIS – Sensome SAS, of Palaiseau, France, has closed a second funding round, of $9 million, with its original French investors (Kurma Partners SA, Invest Partners SA, BNP Paribas Développement SA and the Paris-Saclay Seed Fund), now joined by the Japanese-based Asahi Intecc Co. Ltd.

Early detection of neurodegenerative disease even before symptoms emerge is the ideal when it comes to trying to treat or prevent progression. But that has remained difficult, as brain tissue that isn’t available until after death is typically the most definitive. Now, researchers have used an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to identify genetic expression data over time and correlate them in blood and postmortem brain tissue samples from subjects with either Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s disease.

Abbott Laboratories had a winning week, scoring U.S. FDA approval of its Infinity directional deep brain stimulation (DBS) system in treating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease not adequately managed by medication. The company also reported new data underscoring the benefits of its Proclaim XR neuromodulation system in people living with chronic pain.

Remember how Ras is a frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors? Well, it turns out Ras plays a role in those memories, too. In the Jan. 13, 2020, online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Juniper, Fla., reported on the discovery that Ras signals through Raf and then Rho kinase to control whether memory is short- or long-term.