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Technology, biology and medicine now go hand and hand. But state-of-the-art devices are not always available to the most vulnerable hospital patients, often because of insufficient funding. Pediatric surgeon Hanmin Lee of the University of California, San Francisco helps kick-start innovative projects to bring to clinics. “We organize the engineering children’s heath symposiums to try to bring all the emerging technologies to the benefit of children’s health. ” UCSF is now developing different types of monitoring sensors, artificial organs and even orthopedic magnets that can correct skeletal deformities – all in the hopes of advancing children’s health. “Little robots, all sorts of enabling technologies that we will be able to implement into children with a variety of disabilities for their benefit. And that’s including using, for instance, augmented reality and virtual reality.” The Miracle Babies / Advances in fetal surgery at UCSF's Fetal Treatment Center save twins in a dire situation Katherine Se

Researchers have discovered a new way to spot brain injuries that arise after a concussion. With advanced, functional MRI scanners, doctors can not only make images of what the brain looks like after the injury, but also how it works. “To get a better handle of being able to say what’s going wrong in the brain after the concussions, we are actually looking at brain function and connectivity in the brain, how different brain regions connect with each other and talk to each other.” Pratik Mukherjee, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco adds that the new technology allows scientists to see what traditional MRI tests failed to detect. “The typical MRI scan that people get at a hospital or in outpatient clinics are not useful for concussions because they just look at the anatomy of the brain and most people with concussions don’t have big problems anatomically. Few might have tiny little bleeds in the brain, but even that is a minority.”

In the last couple of years, researchers have come a long way in their understanding of the genetic risk factors for autism – from not knowing how to find autism genes to discovering a variety of mutations linked to the disorder. Psychiatrist Stephen Sanders and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco recently found a molecule responsible for infantile autism. “The hope is that this gene gives us insight of what autism is at a fundamental new logical level. So key things we want to find out are – is there an age at which we could fix this gene problem and see if the problem can go away? Or we have to do it early on?” Basically, the discovery gives scientists hope that autism could possibly be cured not only in children, but in adults, too. “We also want to see where in the brain and when in the brain which cell types are involved to try to work out what autism is and see if this underlying defect can be repaired or at least changed in an adult.“

This week on Science Today, we learned a lot from University of California researchers. For instance, radiologist Pratik Mukherjee at UCSF told us even though people often don’t pay much attention to small brain injuries – like those suffered in a fall or a minor car collision – these types of traumas should never be ignored. "There is a significant minority ranging from anywhere between one-fifth to one-third of people who have what’s called persistent post-concussive syndrome where for months or even years after the injury they have continued problems like headaches, dizziness, insomnia, depression, problems with thinking." These small brain injuries may go undetected by traditional MRI scans, so Mukherjee is using more advanced image capturing technology for diagnosing these concussions and this may allow researchers to predict if injured people will continue experiencing symptoms later in life. On the subject of new technology, researchers at UC Berkeley may have a game changer when it comes to vaccina

Do you dread getting vaccinations because of the needle? Well, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed what could be a game-changer for vaccinations. Dorian Liepmann, a professor of mechanical and bioengineering says their needleless technology is called MucoJet, and it’s designed to self-administer vaccines. "What we have is a pill that actually shoots a jet of drug into your cheek without pain. We use a reaction in here just like vinegar and baking soda. Once that starts reacting, it makes a gas and builds up the pressure inside of the pill. On the end of the nozzle, we have a membrane that holds the pressure in and when it gets to a certain pressure, it releases. This piston pushes down, pushes the drug out and it shoots a jet of the drug into the cheek." Right now, this is a proof-of-concept study, but Liepmann hopes it will be available within the next five to ten years. "The next step is actually a smaller pill and this one’s actually designed to be swallowed. One of t

Genome sequencing, which is figuring out the order of genetic letters in your DNA code, will most likely become a standard testing procedure in the next decades. This, according scientist Diane Dickel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This will help identify diseases you might be prone to. "We’ll continue to accelerate people getting the whole genome sequencing as a routine type of genetic testing rather than what previously been done which is testing a few genes for mutations.” Now, doctors mostly perform genetic testing for people with heart problems or a history of breast cancer, since these diseases have a strong genetic component. “We could use it better for preventative or monitoring types of mechanisms, being able to identify genetically which people should have yearly mammograms vs maybe mammograms every 5 years.” Dickel hopes in the future, more diseases, like diabetes, which is less understood genetically, can be studied with DNA sequencing.

People often don’t pay much attention to small brain injuries suffered in a minor car collision or after accidentally falling and hitting their head. But these types of traumas should not be ignored. “There is a significant minority ranging from anywhere from 1/5 to 1/3 of people who have what’s called persistent post-concussive syndrome where for months or even years after the injury they have continued problems like headaches, dizziness, insomnia, depression, problems with thinking." That’s Pratik Mukherjee, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Small brain injuries often go undetected by traditional MRI scans. But Mukherjee may have found a solution. “We are trying to develop better MRI methods for diagnosing these concussions.” They’re using more advanced image capturing technology, which may allow researchers to predict if injured people continue experiencing symptoms later in life.

In what’s being called a genetic ‘Rosetta Stone', researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have discovered molecules that can lead to infantile epilepsy or autism. Specifically, a neuronal protein called NaV1.2 and the gene that produces it, called SCN2A. Both play a crucial role in early brain development, according to the neuroscientist Kevin Bender. “One of the central functions of the brain cell is to fire something that is called an action potential, which is a way of transmitting information from one cell to the next. And SCN2A and NaV1.2 are at the heart of that process.” Genetic defects that increase neuronal activity as they transmit signals lead to epilepsy, and when this process abnormally slows down, it may cause autism. “We now have a roadmap for understanding how different mutations in SCN2A could lead to different diseases and if we understand that, it might uncover new areas for intervention in the future.”

Does poverty affect children’s teeth? A study by the University of California, San Francisco found that low-income patients were at higher risk of developing cavities, than those with means. UCSF School of Dentistry professor Peter Rechmann surveyed patients who receive dental care at California’s subsidized clinics. "If you go with me into the clinics, and we take a look and there are 80-something people sitting. You will be frustrated how much cavities you see, how much teeth, which are destroyed right now." But Rechmann says we shouldn’t blame income alone for poor dental hygiene. "The income on its own actually doesn’t matter at all. It’s just if someone suffers to survive, he doesn’t have the time to spend x minutes of taking care of their teeth." Rechmann believes instead of drilling, dentists should focus more on preventive care and better educating patients about caries risk. He says more than 30 universities across the United States have joined efforts to follow this path of dental care.

Hi there, thanks for tuning in to Science Today’s weekly roundup. As usual, we covered a range of topics and met with some really great researchers. First, as cool as it is to have a medical device to check up on the health of astronauts in deep space, it’s even better if the same technology can be used here on Earth. That’s just what research scientist Matthew Coleman at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had in mind when he developed a prototype of a handheld diagnostic device for NASA. In fact, he can see it being used for environmental monitoring, too. "To look at even just water. I mean, if it works with saliva, it will certainly work with water from the environment. It could work with material isolated from insects and plants and trees. So, we could do all kinds of environmental sensing." And since the handheld device is rugged enough for space, Coleman says it would be perfect to use in the African desert, too. Meanwhile, over at the Berkeley Lab, researchers are striving to unveil the secret

Some researchers say cows are worse than cars when it comes to global warming because they emit more methane than vehicles produce CO2. The theory was disputed, but it turns out it may not be too far from the truth. Physicist Marc Fisher of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that the amount of methane in the atmosphere has been grossly underestimated, and cows are mainly to blame, at least in California. “The major source of methane in California as a whole is a very large livestock industry in Central Valley. Cows breath out methane it is because their first stomach is essentially a bioreactor, the manure from cows gets put into wastewater treatment or large treatment lagoons.” And Fisher says methane is harder to calculate than carbon dioxide, but it needs to be better regulated – as more careful management of methane emissions could help reduce the threat of climate change.

A medical device that could be used in deep space to check up on the health of astronauts, could also someday be used for various environmental monitoring here on terra firma. "I mean, if it works with saliva, it will certainly work with water from the environment; it could work with material isolated from insects and plants and trees. So we could do all kinds of environmental sensing." That’s Matthew Coleman, a senior research scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He says that if they can make a handheld diagnostic device like this rugged enough for space, it would also be perfect in the African desert. "We’re thinking of something that’s doesn’t require a cold storage, so you don’t have to keep it in the refrigerator until you use it. You’ll just have to add water or an actual blood or saliva or breath condensate sample."

Researchers are striving to unveil the secrets about “dark” DNA, part of the genome that does not code proteins, but plays an important role in regulating genes. Scientist Diane Dickel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been working on finding all of these non-coding regulators -so called enhancers - and pinning them on a map. “I mean, it is like building a road map and adding information onto that, to point that particular pairs in the genome act as these enhancer elements to regulate gene expression.” This map will help researchers get a better picture of the dark DNA, which could shed a light on whether mutations in the enhancers cause genetic diseases. Dickel says this would also be the next step towards improving genetic testing. “The hope of genetic testing is to try to understand biology of what’s happening in the cell to develop treatments for that longer term." And, give patients clear answers about their health and genetic predispositions. For Science Today, I’m Larissa Brani

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This week on Science Today, we covered a lot of topics, including a new finding sheds light on the unknown parts of the genome. This has often been called ‘junk DNA’, but scientist Diane Dickel of the Berkeley Lab doesn’t like that term. Instead, she says these are non-coding parts of the genome. "Only about 3 percent of the genome consists of genes, the other, more than 95 percent of the genome, what we call non-coding, which just means that it does not encode genes. And it is clear these are important things in that non-coding sequence." It is mutations in these non-encoding sequences, called enhancers, that causes genetic diseases. And this is an important finding because doctors don’t know what triggers some of these diseases, including cardiomyopathy – that’s a genetic heart disease. And that’s because researchers were looking for clues in the wrong part of the genome. Meanwhile, at UC San Diego, researchers looking into the mental health of seniors made a startling discovery about young adults. Dili

This is Science Today. Landfills are a large source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. And new research across the state of California has found that its amount in the atmosphere might have been underestimated. Physicist Marc Fisher of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found exactly where excessive methane was coming from and why it was happening. “Most of the emissions from landfills are assumed to be gathered by landfill gas mitigation technology and if this technology is not working as effectively as it was designed to be, then more gas could have escaped to the atmosphere”. This is especially problematic for the Bay Area, where 50 percent of all the methane comes from landfills, which are ubiquitous in the region. “There is now active research identifying how to manage landfills in a way that they emit less”. As part of the solution, Fisher recommends improving methods of collecting emissions. For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.

There’s long been an assumption that the mental health of older people mirrors their declining physical and cognitive function. But according to a University of California, San Diego study, despite physical ailments, aging adults seem to get better over time. In the same study, Dilip Jeste found high levels of depression and anxiety among adults in their 20s and 30s. It made him wish that there were more studies looking into the value of intergenerational activities. "There has been some work of that kind in the past, but I think we need larger scale, better studies in which you can have younger people having an older person, and they become partners or a team with mentorship in both directions. The younger ones are teaching the older ones, let’s say, about technology; and the older ones are teaching the younger ones about how to live life and so on. And we need to measure the outcomes in terms of not just their satisfaction, but even biological measures." And this would help develop broader interventions

This is Science Today. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory might have found what causes cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart disease. According to scientist Diane Dickel, that is an important discovery because doctors don't know what triggers this disease in half the patients. And that may be because researchers were looking for clues in the wrong part of the genome. “Only about 3 percent of the genome consists of genes, the other 95 percent of the genome – what we call non coding, which just means that it does not encode genes. And it is clear there are important things in that non-coding sequence. ” So it is the mutations in these non-coding sequences - called enhancers - that causes genetic diseases. “These enhancer elements regulate gene expression. They are like switchers that tell the genes when and where to turn off and on.” Dickel says this discovery sheds light on the unknown parts of the genome and will help improve clinical diagnosis.

This week on Science Today. Have some researchers underestimated the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere? According to physicist Marc Fisher of the Berkeley Lab, they may have, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area. "We found that emissions are roughly one and a half to two times the emissions expected based on inventory estimates, counting how many landfills, how many cows, how many wastewater treatment plants, how many different things that might emit methane." Because methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, Fisher says their finding calls for better management of pollutant sources like landfills to reduce its contribution. And at UC Davis, we learned how sometimes in medicine, there are compounds that are found to be good for one thing, but not so great for another. Like in the case of NSAIDs, a class of anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen. Aldrin Gomes explains how NSAIDs are known to be linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, but he and his colleagues have found

Sometimes in medicine, there are compounds that are found to be good for one thing, but not so great for another. That seems to be the case when it comes to a class of anti-inflammatory drugs known as NSAIDs. These include pain relievers like ibuprofen. Aldrin Gomes of the University of California, Davis explains that NSAIDs are known to be linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. But they’ve also found that NSAIDS seem to be beneficial in cancer. "In cancer, NSAIDS have been known to kill cancer cells. And it’s killing cancer cells by a similar mechanism as it’s killing the healthy cells, so it’s actually too good at doing a job. So, it’s ironic." Gomes and his team uncovered some of the reasons why NSAIDs can harm heart tissue – including reducing the heart cells’ ability to produce energy. Yet, Gomes says there are some papers showing that NSAIDs can be used to treat cancer. "And the reason for that is that it’s a similar mechanism as how it’s actually damaging the heart cells."