Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have identified a previously unknown kinase that regulates cell proliferation, shape and migration, and may play a major role in the progression or metastasis of cancer cells.
The work, co-led by geneticists at the University of California, San Diego Institute for Genomic Medicine, together with colleagues from institutes and universities in Paris, Rome and England, should allow couples at risk of conceiving babies with the profoundly disabling Meckel-Gruber and Joubert syndromes to be identified beforehand through genetic screening.
Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, PhD, FACMI and founding chief of the division of biomedical informatics at the University of California, San Diego has been named editor of the American Medical Informatics Association’s journal, JAMIA.
Researchers, led by Kerri Boutelle, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that obesity is a risk factor for depressive symptoms.
UC San Diego Health System is enrolling a small group of patients in a two-year study to examine the safety of a non-invasive cardiac shock wave procedure for patients with chest pain caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart.
UC San Diego Emeritus Professor of Pathology Harvey Akio Itano, MD, PhD, a distinguished physician-scientist who was the first Japanese-American to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences, died Saturday, May 8 in La Jolla, California, of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 89.
A team of University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers has discovered that common intestinal bacteria appear to promote tumor growths in genetically susceptible mice, but that tumorigenesis can be suppressed if the mice are exposed to an inhibiting protein enzyme.
In 2009, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, both professors in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, published a paper proposing that sagacity might have a neurobiological basis. In the June issue of The Gerontologist and currently online, Jeste and Meeks go further, attempting to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom.
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) possess remarkable properties of self-renewal and pluripotency, the ability to become almost any kind of cell within the body. And yet they share the same genome or set of genes with lineage-committed cells, cells fated to be or do one thing.
A multicenter team of investigators led by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has demonstrated, for the first time, the safety and efficacy of a targeted medication to shrink advanced kidney cancers prior to partial kidney removal and reconstruction.
A binational team of researchers led by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that active syphilis infections are significantly greater in female sex workers who inject drugs and share needles than those who don’t.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate.
We’ve all heard the expression, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Passing a kidney stone would qualify for one of life’s “lemons,” but did you know that drinking lemonade has been shown to prevent them?
UC San Diego Health System was recently listed as one the nation’s top 15 major teaching hospitals by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care.
New research led by physician-scientists at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows that the test most commonly used to screen pediatric patients for chronic liver disease is often incorrectly interpreted in many children’s hospitals throughout the United States.
Surgeons at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report what is believed to be the nation’s first single-incision laparoscopy to perform a combined colectomy and kidney-preserving therapy.
Recent studies have shown that behaviors such as happiness, obesity, smoking and altruism are “contagious” within adult social networks. In other words, your behavior not only influences your friends, but also their friends and so on. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Harvard University have taken this a step farther and found that the spread of one behavior in social networks influences the spread of another behavior, adolescent drug use.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, professor of family and preventative medicine, examined more than 15 years of data from the California Smokers’ Helpline and compared the use of Asian-language services by Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese callers to the use of English-language services by Caucasian callers. Their findings will appear in the March 18 online issue of The American Journal of Public Health.
As National Poison Prevention Week begins, the California Poison Control System announces ground-breaking new programs, including a free text messaging service, Facebook quizzes and e-cards to provide essential tips, news and information on poisoning, the second leading cause of childhood injury in the U.S.
The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibits tobacco industry advertising practices that encourage underage teenagers to smoke, yet new research out of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego has found that a 2007 marketing campaign for Camel brand cigarettes was effective in encouraging young girls to start smoking.
Surgeons at Moores UCSD Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center based at UC San Diego, are conducting a clinical trial to evaluate whether a FDA-approved device that uses radiofrequency energy may cause less collateral damage to excised tissue, therefore making it easier to examine the tumor and ensure it is entirely removed.
Distinguished neurosurgeon and scientist, Bob Carter, MD, PhD, has been named chief of the division of neurosurgery at UC San Diego Medical Center and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. Under his leadership, the university will launch a multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Treatment Center that will serve as a destination for patients and referring physicians seeking integrated care from multiple specialists in one location.
In a significant leap forward in the understanding of how specific types of tissue are determined to develop in mammals, an international team of scientists has succeeded in mapping the entire network of DNA-binding transcription factors and their interactions. This global network, indicating which factors can combine to determine cell fate, will be published in the March 5 issue of the journal Cell.
Surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center have performed the nation’s first incision-free myotomy, a procedure to treat achalasia, a distressing disorder which causes difficulty swallowing, regurgitation and chest pain. The innovative surgery, performed through the mouth, is the most recent in a series of groundbreaking clinical trial surgeries being evaluated by the UCSD Center for the Future of Surgery.
Research at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests a novel route to improving the symptoms of subsyndromal depression (SSD) in seniors through the regular use of “exergames” – entertaining video games that combine game play with exercise. In a pilot study, the researchers found that use of exergames significantly improved mood and mental health-related quality of life in older adults with SSD.
Researchers from the University of California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) have found “reasonable evidence that cannabis is a promising treatment” for some specific, pain-related medical conditions.
A signaling protein that is key in orchestrating the body’s overall immune response has an important localized role in fighting bacterial infection and inflammation in the intestinal tract, according to a study by UC San Diego School of Medicine investigators, published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.
Building on his Nobel Prize-winning work creating fluorescent proteins that light up the inner workings of cells, a team of researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Roger Tsien, PhD, professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center has developed biological probes that can stick to and light up tumors in mice.
In a study that could lead to new therapeutic targets for patients with the cystic fibrosis, a research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has identified a defective signaling pathway that contributes to disease severity.
Patients suffering from hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), an inherited vascular condition characterized by profuse nosebleeds, may find hope in a cancer-fighting drug called bevacizumab, also known as Avastin.
The results of an innovative study to understand what factors may influence who contracts tuberculosis (TB)/HIV co-infection in San Diego show a significant shift in the ethnic makeup of the disease, with the majority of cases now coming from the Hispanic community.
A team of scientists, led by a virologist from the University of California, San Diego’s Center for AID Research (CFAR), has discovered the origin of strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among men who have sex with men. The study, which may be important in developing prevention strategies for HIV, will appear in Science Translational Medicine on February 10, 2010.
The ethics commentary, called “Gene Doping and Sports,” appears in the February issue of the journal Science. Lead author Theodore Friedmann, MD, professor of pediatrics and director of the Gene Therapy Program at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Researchers at Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego and colleagues have found that prostate cancer treatments varied significantly between county hospitals and private providers. Patients treated in county hospitals are more likely to undergo surgery while patients treated in private facilities tend to receive radiation or hormone therapy. These findings were published online by the journal CANCER on January 25.
Epidemiological studies indicate that being overweight or obese is associated with increased cancer risk. The most dramatic effect of obesity on cancer risk has been noted for a common form of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC.
Repeated exposure to tobacco smoke makes lung cancer much worse, and one reason is that it steps up inflammation in the lung. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that mice with early lung cancer lesions that were repeatedly exposed to tobacco smoke developed larger tumors – and developed tumors more quickly – than unexposed animals.
Loss of spiral ganglion neurons or hair cells in the inner ear is the leading cause of congenital and acquired hearing impairment. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health found that Sox2, a protein that regulates stem cell formation, is involved in spiral ganglion neuron development.
One in six American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Nearly 30,000 men in the US die from this cancer ever year. African American men have nearly twice the risk of dying from prostate cancer as all other ethnicities. Michael Haynes, NFL Hall of Famer, points to a lack of education as the reason why many men avoid screening, risking a cancer diagnosis late in the game.
It’s never too early or too late to start working toward the goal of improving brain health. So perhaps the New Year is the perfect time to consider how one achieves a long and satisfying life. A book recently publishing by American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., called Successful Cognitive and Emotional Aging may be just the tool to help find some answers to the age-old question.
The early stages of Alzheimer’s disease are thought to occur at the synapse, since synapse loss is associated with memory dysfunction. Evidence suggests that amyloid beta (Aβ) plays an important role in early synaptic failure, but little has been understood about Aβ’s effect on the plasticity of dendritic spines.
A group of Norwegian and American researchers have shown that common variations in genes associated with microcephaly – a neuro-developmental disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced – may explain differences in brain size in healthy individuals as well as in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Researchers from the UC San Diego, School of Medicine and colleagues have identified a new gene, ETS-1, that is linked to human congenital heart defects. The landmark study, recently published online in the journal of Human Molecular Genetics, provides important insights into some of the most prevalent forms of congenital heart defects in humans.
Over three decades, a world-recognized medical team at UC San Diego Medical Center has spurred the evolution of a complex surgery to destroy dangerous clusters of arteries and veins in the brain. Integrating innovative approaches in radiology, anesthesia, and surgery, the team has perfected a method to systematically starve these abnormal brain lesions, artery by artery, vein by vein.
A team of scientists from the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Osaka University in Japan have identified a protein switch that helps prevent liver damage, including inflammation, fibrosis and cancer. The findings suggest that a better understanding of how the protein, TAK1, works could lead to new insights into the development of liver disease and cancer.
The recent shootings at the Ft. Hood, Texas army base, allegedly by an army psychiatrist, have placed much-needed focus on mental health care in the army. In an article published in the December issue of the journal CNS Spectrum, renowned psychopharmacology expert Stephen M. Stahl, MD, PhD, calls for increased mental health staffing at Fort Hood and other army bases.
Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine have pinpointed a mechanism that may help explain how chromosomal translocations – the supposedly random shuffling of large chunks of DNA that frequently lead to cancer – aren’t so random after all.
A study by neuroscientist William C. Mobley, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurosciences at the UCSD, School of Medicine, and colleagues at Stanford University Medical School has demonstrated a possible new approach to slowing the inevitable progression of cognitive decline found in Down’s syndrome.
A new study finds that atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, was common in ancient Egyptians, challenging a belief that vascular disease is a modern affliction caused by current-day risk factors such as stress and sedentary lifestyles.
In a study that promises to improve diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a fast and accurate method for quantifying subtle, sub-regional brain volume loss using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The study will be published the week of November 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
Igor Grant, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues have been awarded a $17 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to establish the Translational Methamphetamine AIDS Research Center (TMARC) at UC San Diego.
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