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News Archive - Scott LaFee

How Adolescents Used Drugs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Among adolescents ages 10 to 14 in the U.S, the overall rate of drug use remained relatively stable in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one change was a decreased use of alcohol, but an increased use of nicotine and misuse of prescription drugs.

Eyes Provide Peek at Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

Amyloid plaques found in the retinas of eyes may be an indicator of similar plaques in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, and may provide a more visible biomarker for detecting disease risk.

Girdin One’s Loins

UC San Diego researchers detail how a ubiquitous signaling molecule plays a critical role in male fertility, orchestrating key steps that promote sperm motility, survival and fertilization success.

Human Sperm Mutations that can Cause Disease in Children Identified

UC San Diego researchers have described a new method for observing and counting mutations in sperm, and how to use this data to predict the likely impact of these mutations on future children.

Organ Transplant Recipients Significantly Protected by COVID-19 Vaccination

UC San Diego researchers report that solid organ transplant recipients who were vaccinated experienced an almost 80 percent reduction in the incidence of symptomatic COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated counterparts during the same time.

Rethinking Remdesivir

UC San Diego researchers modify remdesivir, creating oral version that can be taken earlier in COVID-19 diagnoses. In cell and animal studies, revised drug proved effective and safe.

Obesity and Cardiovascular Factors Combine to Cause Cognitive Decline in Latinos

Obesity is a major public health issue among Latinos, and a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. But in a new study, researchers at UC San Diego report that cardiometabolic abnormalities, such as hypertension, are more strongly associated with cognitive decline than obesity alone.

3D “Assembloid” Shows How SARS-CoV-2 Infects Brain Cells

Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine have produced a stem cell model that demonstrates a potential route of entry of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, into the human brain.

Artificial Intelligence Could Be New Blueprint for Precision Drug Discovery

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe a new approach that uses machine learning to hunt for disease targets and then predicts whether a drug is likely to receive FDA approval.

For Transplant Patients, COVID-19 Vaccination Presents a Different Uncertainty

Researchers at UC San Diego Health have launched a pair of clinical trials to study the immune response of COVID-19 vaccinated transplant recipients of bone marrow and solid organs, such as the heart, lung, liver and kidney.