A Sampling of Clips
for September 16^th, 2008

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Making Plastic From Sugar
Forbes, Sept. 16 -- Nudged in large part by higher oil prices, a wave of innovation is sweeping the petrochemicals industry. A handful of companies large and small have been working on replacing petroleum-based ingredients in chemicals with renewable ingredients. Genomatica, which was founded in 2000 by two biology professors UCSD, raised $20 million earlier this year from venture capital firms Mohr Davidow, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Alloy Ventures. More

Insulin Mixes May Work Better Than Longer-Lasting Medicines
Bloomberg, Sept. 15 -- Eli Lilly & Co.'s Humalog and Novo Nordisk A/S's Novolog, insulin mixtures used to adjust doses of the hormone, may help control diabetes better than older, longer-lasting forms of the medicine, according to a review. (Quotes Steven Edelman, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at UCSD) More

Local Stem Cell Consortium Gets $30 Million Gift
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 16 – T. Denny Sanford, a South Dakota businessman who is one of the nation's most generous philanthropists is donating $30 million to San Diego's stem cell consortium, a combination of scientists from the four major research institutes in La Jolla, including UCSD. More

Plants' Daily Alarm Clock Discovered
New Scientist, Sept. 16 -- A newly discovered family of genes acts as a plant's daily alarm, triggering a growth spurt just before dawn. By tweaking these genes, scientists may one day be able to engineer crops that grow for longer every day to produce bigger yields. The team included UCSD Dean of Biological Sciences Steve Kay. More

Burnham Awarded Grant for Parkinson's Research
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 16 -- The La Jolla-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research will announce today that it has received $8 million in federal money to study whether toxins in the environment cause Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder marked by severe trembling and stiffness. Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute and UCSD are expected to collaborate with those from Burnham in the new venture. More

Your Changing Body: Trimester by Trimester
Parenting Magazine, September 2008 -- Many first-time pregnant women think they know about the physical changes that accompany pregnancy, almost all of which they anticipate happening somewhere in the vicinity of their belly button. (Quotes Thomas Moore, M.D., chairman of the department of reproductive medicine at UCSD) More

UCSD Study on Global Warming Claims
More Melting and Loss of Biodiversity is Likely
KPBS, Sept. 16 -- A new UCSD study claims global warming will lead to biodiversity loss and glacial melt. The paper's lead author, Scripps Atmospheric and Climate Sciences Professor Ram Ramanathan believes the Earth will warm more than two-degrees Celsius even if humans take steps to be more responsible. More

Dentist and Son Perform Mission of Mercy
North County Times, Sept. 15 -- A typical day at his Citracado Dental Group office has dentist Randy Jungman seeing maybe 15 to 20 patients a day. That was just a couple of hours of work during his volunteer trip last month to Papua New Guinea, and Micronesia on the USNS Mercy hospital ship. The mission brought health care providers from 10 nations along with service organizations such as Project Hope and the UCSD Predental Society to underserved areas of Southeast Asia. More

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