A new study shows that common mutant forms of the deadly JC polyomavirus are not responsible for the pathogen’s main attack, which causes a brain-damaging disease in immunocompromised patients called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. But that finding raises the ominous question of what the mutants might be up to instead.

To learn more about some of the basic and translational research going on at Brown in different areas of brain science, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin toured labs in Barus and Holley and in Metcalf Laboratory on Friday, June 7, 2013.

Peter Howitt, professor emeritus contributes his thoughts to why businesses aren’t doing their part to help commercialize university research in Canada despite spending more per capita than U.S. universities.

A study using brain images from “quiet” MRI machines adds to the growing body of evidence that breastfeeding improves brain development in infants. Breastfeeding alone produced better brain development than a combination of breastfeeding and formula, which produced better development than formula alone.

The spirometers doctors use to measure lung capacity automatically make “corrections” for the patient’s race. Lundy Braun, professor of medical science at Brown University, has led a systematic review of the research underlying race correction and found that race is rarely defined or skillfully considered. The work, reported in the European Respiratory Journal, raises timely questions about the role of race in medical research.

Leon N Cooper, a 1972 Nobel laureate in physics for the theory of superconductivity, received the Susan Culver Rosenberger Medal during Brown University's 245th Commencement exercises Sunday, May 26, 2013. The Rosenberger Medal, conferred 29 times since it was created in 1919, is the highest honor the Brown University faculty can give.