A detailed molecular analysis of tissue from the brains of individuals who died of COVID-19 reveals extensive signs of inflammation and neurodegeneration, but no sign of the virus that causes the disease.

Researchers at Stanford and KU Leuven have identified more than 70 genes that affect variation in both brain and facial structure. The genes don’t influence cognitive ability, further debunking beliefs that intelligence can be assessed by facial features.

Scientists have identified a key factor in mental aging and shown that it might be prevented or reversed by fixing a glitch in the immune system’s front-line soldiers.

Annelise Barron, Peter Kim, Siddhartha Jaiswal and Keren Haroush will receive grants totaling $10 million to fund their investigations. The awards support risky efforts that could potentially have a big impact in the biomedical sciences.

A common genetic deletion boosts the risk for schizophrenia by 30-fold. Generating nerve cells from people with the deletion has showed Stanford researchers why.

Stanford scientists identified brain circuitry that plays a role in the mysterious experience called dissociation, in which people can feel disconnected from their bodies and reality.

Lim, a clinician, surgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins who has focused largely on immunotherapy for brain tumors, will succeed Gary Steinberg as chair of the department, starting Sept. 1.

The Stanford-based center’s affiliated faculty and staff, aided by more than 400 volunteers, conduct research on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and related disorders.

MRI brain scans show subtle changes consistent with inflammation in a severe childhood disease in which the immune system is thought to attack the brain, Stanford researchers found.

Cerebrospinal fluid levels of a hormone called vasopressin were lower in babies who went on to develop autism than in those who did not, a study found.