The Healthy woman with no Cerebellum

A woman has reached the age of 24 without anyone realising she was missing a large part of her brain. The case highlights just how adaptable the organ is.

The discovery was made when the woman was admitted to the Chinese PLA General Hospital of Jinan Military Area Command in Shandong Province complaining of dizziness and nausea.

She told doctors she'd had problems walking steadily for most of her life, and her mother reported that she hadn't walked until she was 7 and that her speech only became intelligible at the age of 6.

Doctors did a CAT scan and immediately identified the source of the problem – her entire cerebellum was missing (see scan, below left).

The space where it should be was empty of tissue. Instead it was filled with cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain and provides defence against disease.

The cerebellum – sometimes known as the "little brain" – is located underneath the two hemispheres.

It looks different from the rest of the brain because it consists of much smaller and more compact folds of tissue. It represents about 10 per cent of the brain's total volume but contains 50 per cent of its neurons.

Although it is not unheard of to have part of your brain missing, either congenitally or from surgery, the woman joins an elite club of just nine people who are known to have lived without their entire cerebellum.

A detailed description of how the disorder affects a living adult is almost non-existent, say doctors from the Chinese hospital, because most people with the condition die at a young age and the problem is only discovered on autopsy (Brain, doi.org/vh7)

The cerebellum's main job is to control voluntary movements and balance, and it is also thought to be involved in our ability to learn specific motor actions and speak. Problems in the cerebellum can lead to severe mental impairment, movement disorders, epilepsy or a potentially fatal build-up of fluid in the brain.

However, in this woman, the missing cerebellum resulted in only mild to moderate motor deficiency, and mild speech problems such as slightly slurred pronunciation.

Her doctors describe these effects as "less than would be expected", and say her case highlights the remarkable plasticity of the brain.

"These rare cases are interesting to understand how the brain circuitry works and compensates for missing parts," says Mario Manto, who researches cerebellar disorders at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.

The patient's doctors suggest that normal cerebellar function may have been taken over by the cortex – brain scans should reveal the answer.

Bug-Free! A keyboard that cleans itself

It’s not uncommon for keyboards to become the breeding grounds for bacteria and germs. And in a hospital, where doctors and nurses alternate between tending to patients and typing up medical records, the germy computer can be particularly troublesome.

Now, however, health care professionals won’t need to worry about going home sick. In a recent press release, medical technology company Vioguard announced that it has received FDA approval for its first product—a self-sanitizing keyboard.

The keyboard, which is to be used in hospitals, automatically cleans itself by employing the germ-killing properties of ultraviolet light (UV-C). It is able to target microbes (a.k.a. germs) due to their ability to be broken down with just the right amount of ultraviolet light.


Taking on the appearance of any other keyboard, the self-sanitizing version works by automatically retracting into its own light-tight enclosure after use.

Then the UV-C light gets to work—flooding the case and killing any germs that may have been left behind. A quick hand-wave in front of the motion sensor and the keyboard drawer opens, ready for use once again.

Initial testing has shown that the germicidal light was successful in eradicating 99.99 percent of the germs and bacteria that had been lurking on the keyboard.

The system may come as a relief to health care workers who sometimes worry about their own physical conditions—health care associated infections (HAIs) are a real concern in the medical world.

“Conventional computer keyboards have been identified as a key point of transmission of viruses and bacteria, especially within the medical setting,” says Larry Ranta, president and CEO of Vioguard, in the press release. “The Vioguard keyboard takes the guesswork out of sanitization efforts, reduces labour costs, and helps fight the spread of harmful and often deadly superbugs.”

Beet-It! Drinking beetroot juice increases stamina

First it was spinach, then coconut water… and now the humble beetroot has been hailed THE superfood to watch out for.

Hardly surprising considering its track record - it's proven to improve cardiovascular health, keep illness and infection at bay and enhance sporting performance.

Breakthrough research by the University of Exeter, published in the journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that competitive-level cyclists who drank beetroot juice were able to cut down the time it took to ride a given distance.

Researchers studied nine club-level male cyclists, who drank half a litre of beetroot juice before competing in two separate time trials.

The cyclists consumed real beetroot juice before the first trial and, unbeknown to the cyclists, a 'placebo' beetroot juice before the second trial.

A critical ingredient, nitrate, had been removed from the 'placebo' beetroot juice.

Results showed that the riders who consumed the real beetroot juice were an average of 11 seconds quicker over 4 kilometres and 45 seconds quicker over 16.1 kilometres.

The study, which used British brand BEET IT beetroot juice, concluded that the cyclists could attribute their increased stamina to the naturally high levels of Nitric Oxide (NO) found in beetroot.

Firstly, the Nitric Oxide triggers a chemical reaction which leads to the dilation of blood vessels to increase blood flow.

Secondly, it affects muscle tissue, reducing the amount of oxygen required by muscles during physical exertion. Combined, beetroot juice is the perfect all-natural energy hit to ensure peak performance at any sporting level.

To read more about the benefits of beetroot check on the Beet-it website.

Tumours hide out from the immune system by mimicking lymph nodes

Tumours hide out from the immune system by mimicking lymph nodes

A new mechanism explaining how tumours escape the body's natural immune surveillance has recently been discovered at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. The study shows how tumours can create a tolerant microenviroment and avoid attack by the immune system by mimicking key features of lymph nodes.

The discovery, published in Science and in Science Express, underscores the role of the lymphatic system in cancer and may open up new possibilities for cancer treatment.

"The tumour tricks the body into thinking it is healthy tissue," says lead author Melody Swartz, head of the Laboratory of Lymphatic and Cancer Bioengineering (LLCB) and EPFL professor. Swartz and her team set out to understand how immune tolerance is induced by tumours, allowing them to progress and spread.

The researchers from EPFL concentrated their efforts on a certain protein that is normally present in healthy lymph nodes to attract T cells and program them to perform vital immune functions. They found that some tumours can secrete this protein to transform the outer layer of the tumour into lymphoid-like tissue.

This outer layer then attracts and effectively re-programs the T cells to recognise the tumour as friend not foe, resulting in a tumour that goes undetected by the immune system.

Since most tumours progress only if they have escaped the immune system, this new understanding of one mechanism by which the tumour can bypasses or hides from immune defenses is an important step towards future cancer therapies.