Scientists Show How Brain Tumors Outsmart Drugs
Researchers at the School of Medicine have shown one way in which gliomas, a deadly type of brain tumor, can evade drugs aimed at blocking a key cell signaling protein that is crucial for tumor growth. More

Medical Students Say Western Medicine/Teaching Needs to Integrate More with Alternative Medicine
In the largest national survey of its kind, researchers from UCLA and UC San Diego measured medical students’ attitudes and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine. The findings were published in the online issue of Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. More

Link Between Obesity and
Enhanced Cancer Risk Elucidated
Epidemiological studies indicate that being overweight or obese is associated with increased cancer risk. The most dramatic effect of obesity on cancer risk has been noted for a common form of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma. Modeling the effect of obesity in mice, researchers at the School of Medicine have conclusively demonstrated that obesity is tumor-promoting and have obtained evidence that this effect depends on induction of low-grade, chronic inflammation. More

Researchers Find New Insights
into Inherited Retinal Disease
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered new links between a common form of inherited blindness affecting children and a gene known as Abelson helper integration site-1. Their findings, which may lead to new therapies and improved diagnostics for retinal disease, appeared online in the journal Nature Genetics. More

Tobacco Smoke Causes Lung Inflammation,
Promotes Lung Cancer Growth
Repeated exposure to tobacco smoke makes lung cancer much worse, and one reason is that it steps up inflammation in the lung. Scientists at the School of Medicine have found that mice with early lung cancer lesions that were repeatedly exposed to tobacco smoke developed larger tumors — and developed tumors more quickly — than unexposed animals. The key contributing factor was lung tissue inflammation. More

UC San Diego Researchers
Synchronize Blinking “Genetic Clocks”
Researchers at UC San Diego who last year genetically engineered bacteria to keep track of time by turning on and off fluorescent proteins within their cells have taken another step toward the construction of a programmable genetic sensor. The scientists recently synchronized these bacterial “genetic clocks” to blink in unison and engineered the bacterial genes to alter their blinking rates when environmental conditions change. More

Renowned Oceanographer Walter Munk
to Receive Crafoord Prize
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego scientist Walter Munk, often referred to as the world’s “greatest living oceanographer,” added to a long list of career honors today when the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced his receipt of the Crafoord Prize, which is given each spring to researchers who have made major advancements in their branches of science. More