News Archive - Heather Buschman, PhD

Distinguishing Deadly Staph Bacteria from Harmless Strains

To better understand the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and develop more effective treatments, University of California San Diego researchers examined the Staph “pan-genome” — the genomes of 64 different strains that differ in where they live, the types of hosts they infect and their antibiotic resistance profiles. This effort, published June 6 by PNAS, places all Staph genes into one of two categories: the core genome or the dispensable genome.

American Gut Project Expands to Asia

University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers are expanding the American Gut Project into Asia. The goal of American Gut, the world’s largest crowdfunded citizen science project, is to sequence as many human microbiomes — the unique collection of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on us — as possible.

High Levels of Protein p62 Predict Liver Cancer Recurrence

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have discovered that high levels of the protein p62 in human liver samples are strongly associated with cancer recurrence and reduced patient survival. In mice, they also found that p62 is required for liver cancer to form.

UC San Diego Joins IBM World Community Grid’s Search for Zika Treatment

IBM's World Community Grid and scientists from Brazil, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego, and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School have launched OpenZika, a project to find drug candidates to treat Zika, a fast spreading virus that the World Health Organization has declared a global public health emergency.

Immunization with Bacteria Promotes Stress Resilience, Coping Behaviors in Mice

Injections of the soil bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae promote stress resilience and improve coping behaviors in mice, according to a new study led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of Colorado Boulder. The researchers also found that

UC San Diego to Participate in White House’s National Microbiome Initiative

On May 13, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced a new National Microbiome Initiative, a coordinated effort to better understand microbiomes and to develop tools to protect and restore healthy microbiome function. OSTP is launching the initiative with a combined federal agency investment of more than $121 million. The University of California San Diego is a key participant in this effort, investing $12 million in its own microbiome research efforts.

Zika Virus May Cause Microcephaly by Hijacking Human Immune Molecule

For the first time, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have determined one way Zika virus infection can damage developing brain cells. The study, published May 6 in Cell Stem Cell, also shows that inhibiting this mechanism reduces brain cell damage, hinting at a new therapeutic approach to mitigating the effects of prenatal Zika virus infection.

Fermentation Festival Leads to Rapid Response System at Center for Microbiome Innovation

While technological advances have made it easier to map our microbiomes and metabolomes, these studies typically take too long for that data to be medically useful. Researchers at the University of California San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation used the 2016 San Diego Fermentation Festival as a test case for a novel rapid response system. In the study, published in mSystems, the team collected samples, analyzed data and reported conclusions in an unprecedented 48 hours.

HIV Infection Prematurely Ages People by an Average of Five Years

Thanks to combination antiretroviral therapies, many people with HIV can expect to live decades after being infected. Yet doctors have observed these patients often show signs of premature aging. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have applied a highly accurate biomarker to measure just how much HIV infection ages people at the cellular level — an average of almost five years.

New Computer Program Can Help Uncover Hidden Genomic Alterations that Drive Cancers

Cancer is rarely the result of a single mutation in a single gene. Rather, tumors arise from the complex interplay between any number of mutually exclusive abnormal changes in the genome, the combinations of which can be unique to each individual patient. To better characterize the functional context of genomic variations in cancer, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Broad Institute developed a new computer algorithm they call REVEALER.