Health & Behavior

Research

The Latest

Jill P. Mesirov Appointed Associate Vice Chancellor for Computational Health Sciences

Leading computational biologist Jill P. Mesirov, PhD, has been appointed associate vice chancellor for computational health sciences and professor of medicine at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center. Mesirov most recently served as associate director and chief informatics officer at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she directed the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Program.

Scientists Create Synthetic Membranes That Grow Like Living Cells

Chemists and biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in designing and synthesizing an artificial cell membrane capable of sustaining continual growth, just like a living cell.

Discovery Paves Way for New Kinds of Superconducting Electronics

Physicists at UC San Diego have developed a new way to control the transport of electrical currents through high-temperature superconductors—materials discovered nearly 30 years ago that lose all resistance to electricity at commercially attainable low temperatures.

New Biomarker Identified in Women with Mental Illness

Psychiatric disorders can be difficult to diagnose because clinicians must rely upon interpreted clues, such as a patient’s behaviors and feelings. For the first time, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report identifying a biological marker: the over-production of specific genes that could be a diagnostic indicator of mental illness in female psychiatric patients.

Single Enzyme’s Far-Reaching Influence in Human Biology and Disease

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have made a surprisingly simple discovery: The modification of more than 100 secreted proteins is the work of a single enzyme called Fam20C. The finding is published June 18 by Cell.

New Biomarkers Might Help Personalize Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Treatment

Metastatic colorectal cancer patients tend to live longer when they respond to the first line of chemotherapy their doctors recommend. To better predict how patients will respond to chemotherapy drugs before they begin treatment, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine conducted a proof-of-principle study with a small group of metastatic colorectal cancer patients. The results revealed two genes that could help physicians make more informed treatment decisions for patients with this disease.