Biologys cookbook: UBC team discovers new kind of brain cell linked to memory [Video]

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have discovered a new type of brain cell they believe plays a critical role in humans’ ability to recognize and remember objects.

The research, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, dubbed the highly-specialized neurons “ovoid cells.”

The cells activate every time we encounter something new, kicking off a process that sees the information stored in our memory — allowing us to recognize the items months or even years later.

Dr. Mark Cembrowski, the study’s senior author and an associate professor of cellular and physiological sciences at UBC, said the discovery opens exciting doors in the fight against memory-related diseases and disorders.

“We can study these cells to understand from a new perspective Alzheimer’s disease spread in the brain,” he said.

“This is biology’s cookbook with which the way Alzheimer’s disease operates, and we can potentially leverage those biological principles to gain new insight and …