Health & Behavior

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The Latest

UC San Diego Chemist Stirs Hope for a New Flu Treatment

Each year people all over the world die from the flu. To protect against influenza epidemics and their potentially mortal results, medical professionals encourage vaccination. While generally effective for healthy individuals, vaccinations are less effective for the elderly, the immunocompromised and other high-risk groups. For the healthy, getting a shot doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t get the flu since current vaccinations are not full-proof. But now there’s hope.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make me a Match

Each year, at precisely the same moment — 12 p.m. on the East coast, 9 a.m. on the West — thousands of graduating medical school students across the country simultaneously tear open an envelope. The single sheet of paper inside informs each graduate where he or she will do their residencies. This rite of passage for medical students will mark a new chapter in their already remarkable stories. Here are three.

UC San Diego Researchers Launch Combination Drug Trial to Eradicate B-Cell Malignancies

Fueled by a multimillion dollar grant from the state’s stem cell agency, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with local biotechnology company Oncternal Therapeutics, have launched a phase Ib/II clinical trial to evaluate the combined effectiveness of a standard of care drug with a novel monoclonal antibody that target B-cell malignancies, which include leukemias and lymphomas.

Scientists Construct Google-Earth-like Atlas of the Human Brain

Two neuroscientists have produced a new kind of atlas of the human brain that, they hope, can be eventually refined and improved to provide more detailed information about the organization and function of the human brain.

Gastrointestinal Hormone Measurably Improved Symptoms of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Through a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II clinical trial, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that small doses of NGM282, a non-tumorigenic variant of an endocrine gastrointestinal hormone, can significantly and rapidly decrease liver fat content in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The findings, they say, represent an important proof-of-concept for the compound as there are currently no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments for NAFLD and NASH.

New Test Can Diagnose Heart Attack within an Hour

UC San Diego Health is the first hospital in California to use the fifth generation troponin test to diagnose heart attack. Approved in the United States in 2017, the more sensitive test can detect heart attack within an hour, as opposed to three to six hours.