Five scientists from the University of California, San Diego and its School of Medicine have been awarded almost $12 million in new grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to conduct stem cell-based research into regenerating spinal cord injuries, repairing gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and finding new drugs to treat heart failure and Alzheimer’s disease.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are molecules produced in the skin to fend off infection-causing microbes. Vitamin D has been credited with a role in their production and in the body’s overall immune response, but scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say a hormone previously associated only with maintaining calcium homeostasis and bone health is also critical, boosting AMP expression when dietary vitamin D levels are inadequate.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, has renewed funding for the Superfund Research Program (SRP) at the University of California, San Diego. Over the next five years, the $15 million grant will fund continued research on the molecular and genetic consequences of exposure to uncontrolled toxicants from Superfund and other hazardous waste sites.
Time lines and number lines —so familiar, so basic, they’re taken for granted. But if you think that the way you think about these fundamental concepts is hardwired, you might want to think again, says UC San Diego cognitive scientist Rafael Núñez.
The beach of La Jolla Shores will be home to a possible record-breaking line of surfboards on June 10, as hundreds of cancer survivors, caregivers, friends and surfers gather together in solidarity in the fight to wipe out cancer. As part of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center’s 6th annual Survivor Beach, attendees will line surfboards along the shore, nose-to-tail, from Scripps Pier down La Jolla Shores, in a stunning visual display.
Research by a collaborative group of scientists from UC San Diego School of Medicine, UC San Francisco and Wake Forest School of Medicine has led to identification of an existing drug that is effective against Entamoeba histolytica. This parasite causes amebic dysentery and liver abscesses and results in the death of more than 70,000 people worldwide each year.