November 16, 2011
November 16, 2011 —
A new study using magnetic resonance imaging data of 406 adult human twins affirms the long-standing idea that the genetic basis of human cortical regionalization – the organization of the outer brain into specific functional areas – is similar to and consistent with patterns found in other mammals, indicating a common conservation mechanism in evolution.
November 15, 2011
November 15, 2011 —
For patients who have suffered an ischemic stroke, traditional treatment prescribes keeping subsequent blood pressure levels as low as possible to reduce the risk of another stroke. A new international study, however, suggests this conventional approach may not be helpful, and could actually increase recurrent stroke risk – at least in the first few months after the first event.
November 14, 2011
November 14, 2011 —
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center have identified a new drug discovery approach enabling the destruction of the most highly proliferative tumors. The discovery, published in the November 13 online issue of the journal Nature Medicine, points to an effective, alternative method for killing fast-growing cancer cells without causing some of the negative effects of current therapies.
November 10, 2011
November 10, 2011 —
By knocking out a key regulatory protein, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland dramatically boosted insulin sensitivity in lab mice, an achievement that opens a new door for drug development and the treatment of diabetes.
November 10, 2011
November 10, 2011 —
Cells develop and thrive by turning genes on and off as needed in a precise pattern, a process known as regulated gene transcription. In a paper published in the November 9 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say this process is even more complex than previously thought, with regulated genes actually relocated to other, more conducive places in the cell nucleus.
November 9, 2011
November 9, 2011 —
In a paper published in the November 9 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of Washington describe in deeper detail the pathology of a devastating neurological disorder, but also reveal new cellular targets for possibly slowing its development.
November 1, 2011
November 1, 2011 —
Human memory has historically defied precise scientific description, its biological functions broadly but imperfectly defined in psychological terms.
October 10, 2011
October 10, 2011 —
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say that losing the ability to make a particular kind of sugar molecule boosted disease protection in early hominids, and may have directed the evolutionary emergence of our ancestors, the genus Homo.
October 5, 2011
October 5, 2011 —
Conditions like atherosclerosis and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – the most common cause of blindness among the elderly in western societies – are strongly linked to increased oxidative stress, the process in which proteins, lipids and DNA damaged by oxygen free radicals and related cellular waste accumulate, prompting an inflammatory response from the body’s innate immune system that results in chronic disease.
September 29, 2011
September 29, 2011 —
A major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and other health- and life-threatening conditions, obesity is epidemic in the United States and other developed nations where it’s fueled in large part by excessive consumption of a fat-rich “Western diet.”
