School of Medicine

The Latest

Dog Poop Microbiome Predicts Canine Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine discovered a pattern of microbes indicative of IBD in dogs. With more than 90 percent accuracy, the team used that information to predict which dogs had IBD. However, they also determined that the gut microbiomes of dogs and humans are not similar enough to use dogs as animal models for humans with this disease. The study is published October 3 in Nature Microbiology.

Journalist Mark Johnson to Discuss “Dirty Game of Doping in Sports” at Geisel Library, Oct. 20

Sports journalist and University of California San Diego alumnus Mark Johnson will take guests inside the metaphorical locker room to share the real dope on doping in professional sports, the focus of his new book, published in July 2016.

MicroRNA Specifically Kills Cancer Cells with Common Mutation

Approximately 20 percent of all human cancers have mutations in a gene called KRAS. KRAS-mutant cancers are among the most difficult to treat, with poor survival and resistance to chemotherapy. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center used microRNAs to systematically inhibit thousands of other genes to find combinations that are specifically lethal to cancer cells driven by a KRAS mutation.

UC San Diego’s Samara Reck-Peterson Awarded Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Simons Grant

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Simons Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has named Samara Reck-Peterson, PhD, an HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar. Reck-Peterson, a professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Division of Biological Sciences at University of California San Diego, will receive a total of $1.5 million over five years in support of her studies on cargo transport within cells.

UC San Diego Innovators Earn Biocom Life Science Catalyst Awards

Biocom has announced the winners of its inaugural Life Science Catalyst Awards, presented in conjunction with the San Diego Venture Group, and UC San Diego-related innovators are prominent among the awardees.

Researchers Find Fertility Genes Required for Sperm Stem Cells

The underlying cause of male infertility is unknown for 30 percent of cases. In a pair of new studies, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine determined that the reproductive homeobox (RHOX) family of transcription factors — regulatory proteins that activate some genes and inactivate others — drive the development of stem cells in the testes in mice. The investigators also linked RHOX gene mutations to male infertility in humans.