University of California, San Diego
People voluntarily pick what information they store in short-term memory. Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers can see just what information people are holding in memory based only on patterns of activity in the brain.
Using a laser to treat cells in the brain did not significantly reduce stroke disability, according to results of the first major clinical trial of laser therapy presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2009.
Scientists have developed a set of molecular tools that provide important insight into the complex genomes of multicellular organisms.
Memory loss, cognitive impairment, brain cell degeneration and cell death were prevented or reversed in several animal models after treatment with a naturally occurring protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
A grid of small arteries at the surface of the brain redirects flow and widens at critical points to restore blood supply to tissue starved of nutrients and oxygen following a stroke, a study published this week has found.
How is a language born? What are its essential elements? Linguists are gaining new insights into these age-old conundrums from a language created in a small village in Israel's Negev Desert. The Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), which serves as an alternative language of a community of about 3,500 deaf and hearing people, has developed a distinct grammatical structure early in its evolution, researchers report, and the structure favors a particular word order: verbs after objects.
Currently available lines of human embryonic stem cells have been contaminated with a non-human molecule that compromises their potential therapeutic use in human subjects, according to research by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
In a study published online January 23, 2005 in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers found that human embryonic stem cells, including those currently approved for study under federal funding in the U.S., contain a non-human, cell-surface sialic acid called N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), even though human cells are genetically unable to make it. In a related paper published November 29, 2004 by the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), the Varki group has also discovered the exact cellular mechanism by which this occurs.
Engineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego are using the shell of a seaweed-eating snail as a guide in the development of a new generation of bullet-stopping armor. The colorful oval shell of the red abalone is highly prized as a source of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, jewelry, but the UCSD researchers are most impressed by the shell's ability to absorb heavy blows without breaking.
Beware not the ides but the start of March -- and April and May and every month. In the first few days of each month, fatalities due to medication errors rise by as much as 25 percent above normal, according to new research by University of California, San Diego sociologist David Phillips. Published in the January issue of Pharmacotherapy, the journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the study is the first to document a beginning-of-the-month spike in deaths attributed to mistakes in prescription drugs.
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have found a fundamental mechanism used by embryonic stem cells to assure that genetically damaged stem cells do not divide and pass along the damage to daughter stem cells.
Their discovery, detailed in an advance online publication of the journal Nature Cell Biology, solves the longstanding mystery of how embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to divide an unlimited number of times and differentiate to make all of the cell types in the body, are able to avoid duplicating cells that have sustained genetic damage.
Researchers have taken a significant step forward in developing a new method to produce drug compounds with potential to treat various types of cancer. In the current issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology, scientists describe the development of ''bryA,'' a gene that could help solve problems associated with the production of anticancer agents originally discovered in the marine invertebrate Bugula neritina.
A summer voyage to investigate the causes of one of the most devastating tsunamis in United States history has uncovered new mysteries about biological and geological processes off Alaska. Probing the depths below one of the world's most important fisheries, scientists with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, as well as Indiana State University and their colleagues, conducted the first exploration of deep seafloor biological communities in a sector of the Alaskan margin off the Aleutian Islands along the northern part of the Pacific Rim.
Like the sailing vessel used by Captain Joshua Slocum to sail solo around the world 100 years ago, another ocean-going vehicle is making history. A small ocean glider named Spray is the first autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, to cross the Gulf Stream underwater, proving the viability of self-propelled gliders for long-distance scientific missions and opening new possibilities for studies of the oceans.
Children on the witness stand are likely to tell the truth about a parental transgression--even when their parents have asked them to lie--according to new research conducted at the University of California, San Diego, and McGill University and Queens University in Canada. The researchers were interested in trying to determine how accurate and truthful children usually are in courtroom situations, especially in light of the significant increase in child witnesses over the last few years. ''With a substantial number of young children testifying in U.S., Canadian and other courts, we wanted to test the accuracy and veracity of child witnesses. We found that when the children were questioned--as they are in standard courtroom processes--about lying and telling the truth, and when they were also asked to promise to tell the truth, the level of honesty went up.''
An under-recognized and usually asymptomatic condition called subclavian artery stenosis -- an obstruction of arteries located under the clavicle, or collarbone -- is important in the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure, according to a new study. SS was found in approximately 2 percent of individuals without cardiovascular problems and in 7 percent of those currently under a doctor's care for cardiovascular conditions.
