President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, a federal research effort designed to help researchers answer fundamental questions about how the brain works, has in recent months awarded scientists at UC San Diego with more than $10 million in grants, cementing the campus’s reputation as one of the world’s top centers for neuroscience research.
Two professors of psychiatry at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have been honored by the New York City-based Brain & Behavior Research Foundation for their work studying the genetics, dysfunction and treatment of schizophrenia, a chronic and severe brain disorder affecting roughly 1 percent of the general population or approximately 3 million people.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have, for the first time, clearly defined the epidemiology of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), which occur primarily in the lining of the stomach and small intestine. One key finding: Patients of Asian descent, who have not previously been identified as an at-risk population, are 1.5 times more likely than other patient groups to be diagnosed with this type of tumor.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a microRNA molecule as a surprisingly crucial player in managing cell survival and growth. The findings underscore the emerging recognition that non-coding RNAs help regulate basic cellular processes and may be key to developing new drugs and therapies.
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that T-cells – a type of white blood cell that learns to recognize and attack microbial pathogens – are activated by a pain receptor.
With mobile devices in every back pocket and lab coat, it’s a given that patients and their physicians need not be in the same room to interact. But a proof-of-concept demonstration at the University of California, San Diego this week showed that with the right network and visualization technologies, patients need not even be in the same time zone as their physicians in order to obtain a face-to-face medical opinion.