A California high school student helped accelerate an anti-obesity drug discovery program at Vanderbilt University this summer — and provided the proof-of-principle for a new technique that could save the lab an estimated $250,000 in the process.

Creating a device out of human cells that simulates brain chemistry is the goal of a $6.4 million grant which is part of major new federal initiative to develop a series of “organs on a chip” designed to improve the drug development process.

New findings point to brain circuitry that communicates about the body’s nutritional status and regulates how nutrients are mobilized.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists have successfully tagged a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of individual molecules for the first time. This capability makes it possible to study the manner in which serotonin regulates mood, appetite and sleep at a new level of detail.

A rare genetic change adds support to the idea that altered dopamine signaling is a key risk factor for ADHD.

Understanding how mutations in neuronal receptors contribute to epilepsy could lead to improved therapies.

Studies offer new insights into how obesity impairs the function of HDL, the “good” cholesterol.