UCSD Research News

Could “Love Hormone” Help Treat Depression?

2012-02-13T10:15:02+00:00

Gazing into your lover’s eyes isn’t only romantic; it also releases a brain chemical called oxytocin that strengthens social bonds in a variety of species. For some people who suffer from depression, the so-called “hormone of love” might hold out hope. Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine are conducting a clinical trial to study whether oxytocin – the brain hormone released with touches, hugs, or when a mother and her newborn baby bond – might help patients with depression.

Envelope for an Artificial Cell

2012-01-24T14:20:43+00:00

Chemists have taken an important step in making artificial life forms from scratch. Using a novel chemical reaction, they have created self-assembling cell membranes, the structural envelopes that contain and support the reactions required for life.

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SDSC’s East Building Receives LEED Gold Certification

2012-01-23T11:20:43+00:00

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has been awarded a LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification for its SDSC East building expansion.

New Study Links Timing of Alcohol Exposure In Pregnancy and FAS Physical Features

2012-01-17T20:38:29+00:00

Researchers at the California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS) Pregnancy Health Information Line, a state-wide non-profit organization based at the University of California, San Diego, have found new links between the timing of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and certain characteristics of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

DOE Awards Record Supercomputing Time to UC San Diego, SDSC Researchers

2012-01-12T13:38:45+00:00

Scientists from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and other areas of the University of California, San Diego, conducting research in physics, computer science, earth science, and engineering, together were awarded an all-time high of more than a quarter billion hours in supercomputing processor time by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the agency’s 2012 Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program.

Radical Surgery Saves Life of Young Mom, California First

2012-01-05T13:54:49+00:00

A team led by Alan Hemming, MD, transplant surgeon at UC San Diego Health System, has successfully performed the west coast’s first ex-vivo liver resection, a radical procedure to completely remove and reconstruct a diseased liver and re-implant it without any tumors.

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New Chair Named for UC San Diego Department of Medicine

2012-01-05T12:14:22+00:00

Wolfgang H. Dillmann, MD, has been selected as chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He has also been named the Helen M. Ranney Endowed Chair, the school’s first faculty-funded endowed chair, founded in 1991 in honor of the department’s second chair.

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San Diego’s Algal Biofuels Research Enterprise Continues Rapid Growth

2012-01-05T08:02:33+00:00

Despite the sluggish economy, San Diego’s research efforts to produce new transportation fuels from algae continue to grow at a rapid pace, generating more than double the number of jobs for local workers in 2011 than were available in the region just two years ago.

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Robotic Surgery with One Small Incision, U.S. First

2011-12-22T11:04:48+00:00

On Tuesday, December 20th, Santiago Horgan, MD, chief of minimally invasive surgery at UC San Diego Health System was the first surgeon in the United States to remove a diseased gallbladder through a patient’s belly button with the aid of a new FDA-approved da Vinci Si Surgical System.

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DNA Mismatch Repair Happens Only During A Brief Window of Opportunity

2011-12-22T11:00:06+00:00

In eukaryotes – the group of organisms that include humans – a key to survival is the ability of certain proteins to quickly and accurately repair genetic errors that occur when DNA is replicated to make new cells.

Rare Genetic Mutations Linked To Bipolar Disorder

2011-12-21T09:00:53+00:00

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, reports that abnormal sequences of DNA known as rare copy number variants, or CNVs, appear to play a significant role in the risk for early onset bipolar disorder.

Researchers Create Living ‘Neon Signs’ Composed of Millions of Glowing Bacteria

2011-12-18T10:00:01+00:00

In an example of life imitating art, biologists and bioengineers at UC San Diego have created a living neon sign composed of millions of bacterial cells that periodically fluoresce in unison like blinking light bulbs.

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UC San Diego Center for Transplantation “VAD Destination Therapy” Approved

2011-12-15T11:37:52+00:00

The Joint Commission (TJC) has approved UC San Diego Health System’s Disease-Specific Care (DSC) Certification for Ventricular Assist Device (VAD). Hospitals performing VAD as a “destination therapy” (for permanent use) receive a certification of distinction and receive reimbursement from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

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UC San Diego Health System Honored with Magnet® Status

2011-12-14T11:07:09+00:00

On December 12, 2011, UC San Diego Health System was bestowed Magnet® status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The Magnet Recognition Program® recognizes health care organizations for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in nursing practice. UC San Diego Health System is one of 25 health systems in California to achieve this prestigious recognition.

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Bridging the Hearts & Minds of Youth Conference, Feb. 4-5

2011-12-14T09:59:29+00:00

Beginning February 4, 2012, the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness will host a national conference for teachers, parents, therapists, and school administrators called Bridging the Hearts & Minds of Youth. The two-day conference is designed to familiarize and train attendees with the ways in which mindfulness is being taught to children and teens in a variety of settings. The goal is to teach mindfulness as a tool to positively impact children’s psychological, physical and social well-being.

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UC San Diego Health System Receives Leapfrog Group’s Top Hospitals Award for High Quality Care

2011-12-06T10:59:13+00:00

The Leapfrog Group’s annual class of top hospitals – 65 from a field of nearly 1200 – was announced December 6th in Washington, D.C. and included UC San Diego Health System in San Diego, California for the first time. The 2011 list includes university and other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s national survey that measures hospitals’ performance in crucial areas of patient safety and quality.

SDSC’s Triton Resource Helps “Track” How Kinesin Molecules Move

2011-12-06T06:00:27+00:00

Researchers at UC San Diego’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, in collaboration with several universities in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Poland, have developed a new picture of how kinesin molecules move along microtubules, or tiny biological train tracks – and how they sometimes come to a halt, causing diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

UC San Diego Health System CNO/Acting COO Receives Visionary Award

2011-12-05T15:52:07+00:00

Margarita M. Baggett, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, UC San Diego Health System, is the winner of Nursing Management’s 2011 Visionary Leader award. The annual award recognizes a nurse leader who “views nursing as both art and science by promoting caring and competence as the link between science and humanity.”

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Founding Biologist at UC San Diego Dies at 89

2011-12-01T09:21:34+00:00

Stanley Eli Mills, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and one of its founding faculty members, died Friday, November 25 following a Thanksgiving evening automobile accident in San Diego. He was 89.

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Testing Antioxidant Drugs is Transparent

2011-11-21T12:12:39+00:00

A study using genetically modified zebrafish to visualize early events involved in development of human atherosclerosis describes an efficient model – one that the researchers say offers many applications for testing the potential effectiveness of new antioxidant and dietary therapies.

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Old Drugs Find New Target For Treating Brain Tumor

2011-11-18T13:28:36+00:00

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, in collaboration with colleagues in Boston and South Korea, say they have identified a novel gene mutation that causes at least one form of glioblastoma (GBM), the most common type of malignant brain tumor.

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New Drug Combo Targets Multiple Cancers

2011-11-16T13:10:49+00:00

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Kyushu University Medical School say a novel combination of a specific sugar molecule with a pair of cell-killing drugs prompts a wide variety of cancer cell types to kill themselves, a process called apoptosis or programmed cell death.

Of Mice and Men, a Common Cortical Connection

2011-11-16T10:48:17+00:00

A new study using magnetic resonance imaging data of 406 adult human twins affirms the long-standing idea that the genetic basis of human cortical regionalization – the organization of the outer brain into specific functional areas – is similar to and consistent with patterns found in other mammals, indicating a common conservation mechanism in evolution.

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New Way to Target – And Kill – Proliferating Tumors

2011-11-14T09:26:23+00:00

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center have identified a new drug discovery approach enabling the destruction of the most highly proliferative tumors. The discovery, published in the November 13 online issue of the journal Nature Medicine, points to an effective, alternative method for killing fast-growing cancer cells without causing some of the negative effects of current therapies.

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SDSC’s Gordon Ranks Among Top 50 Fastest Supercomputers in the World

2011-11-14T08:36:04+00:00

Gordon, a unique data-intensive supercomputer using flash-based memory that will enter production in January at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, made its debut as the 48th fastest supercomputer in the world, according to the latest Top500 list.

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Knocking Out Key Protein in Mice Boosts Insulin Sensitivity

2011-11-10T14:58:46+00:00

By knocking out a key regulatory protein, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland dramatically boosted insulin sensitivity in lab mice, an achievement that opens a new door for drug development and the treatment of diabetes.

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Non-Coding RNA Relocates Genes When It’s Time To Go To Work

2011-11-10T14:47:16+00:00

Cells develop and thrive by turning genes on and off as needed in a precise pattern, a process known as regulated gene transcription. In a paper published in the November 9 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say this process is even more complex than previously thought, with regulated genes actually relocated to other, more conducive places in the cell nucleus.