Science & Environment

Research

The Latest

UC San Diego Health Joins Precision Medicine Initiative to Tackle Pancreatic Cancer

Physician-scientists with Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health have been leading the way in pancreatic cancer care by investigating new therapies as well as offering innovative clinical trials and the latest treatments with a personalized medicine approach. This expertise led to the selection of Moores Cancer Center as one of 12 clinical trial sites for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s newly created Precision Promise, the first large-scale precision medicine trial network designed to transform outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer.

New Fault Discovered in Earthquake-Prone Southern California Region

A swarm of nearly 200 small earthquakes that shook Southern California residents in the Salton Sea area last week raised concerns they might trigger a larger earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault. At the same time, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno published their recent discovery of a potentially significant fault that lies along the eastern edge of the Salton Sea.

Antibody Drug Conjugates May Help Personalize Radiotherapy for Patients with Cancer

Many types of cancer become drug resistant, making them difficult to treat. Researchers with University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center have identified a strategy to selectively sensitize certain cancer cells to radiation therapy that may improve tumor control and reduce treatment-related side effects.

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.