Futurity.org » University of California at Davis

Biology can’t run on genes alone

Pat Bailey-UC Davis — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:57:00 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — Don’t lose the organism in the excitement over its genes, say biologists, who caution against straying too far from the actual plants, animals, and microorganisms.

The team suggests that decades of focus on genes have led the scientific community away from a balanced exploration of the organisms that those genes define.

‘Water-pumping’ fabric channels away sweat

Andy Fell-UC Davis — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:43:58 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — A new fabric works like human skin, forming excess sweat into droplets that drain away by themselves, says inventor Tingrui Pan.

Pan, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Davis, and his research team developed a new textile microfluidic platform using hydrophilic (water-attracting) threads stitched into a highly water-repellent fabric.

Anxiety drug reduces MS symptoms in mice

Charles Casey-UC Davis — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:31:03 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — An anti-anxiety drug available in Europe helps protect nerve fibers and slows the progression of symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice, a study shows.

The findings, published online in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine , could have therapeutic applications for MS as well as cerebral palsy and leukodystrophies, all disorders associated with loss of white matter, which is the brain tissue that carries information between nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

The target, a protein referred to as mitochondrial translocator protein (TSPO), had been previously identified but not linked to MS, an autoimmune disease that strips the protective fatty coating off nerve fibers of the brain and spinal cord.

Depressed people’s body clocks ‘out of sync’

U. Michigan — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:19:13 +0000

U. MICHIGAN (US) — A new brain study reveals that the circadian clocks of people with depression are altered at the cellular level.

Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. The brain acts as timekeeper, keeping the cellular clock in sync with the outside world so that it can govern our appetites, sleep, moods, and much more.

Nose swabs confirm H1N1 flu in seals

Kat Kerlin-UC Davis — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:01:26 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — A year after the human pandemic began, scientists found H1N1 (2009) infections in two free-ranging northern elephant seals off the central California coast, and antibodies to the virus in 28 more.

Those antibodies indicate more widespread exposure, report the researchers. Between 2009 and 2011, the team tested nasal swabs from more than 900 marine mammals from 10 different species off the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California.

Neither infected seal appeared to be ill, indicating marine mammals may be infected without showing clinical signs of illness. The study, the first report of that flu strain in any marine mammal, appears in PLOS ONE.

Europeans are basically one big family

Andy Fell-UC Davis — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:25:54 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — Everyone with ancestors from the European continent are likely cousins who share the same family members from about a thousand years ago.

“What’s remarkable about this is how closely everyone is related to each other. On a genealogical level, everyone in Europe traces back to nearly the same set of ancestors only a thousand years ago,” says study co-author Graham Coop, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis.

Fish embryos reveal that oil spill lingers

Kat Kerlin-UC Davis — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:08:08 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, crude oil toxicity continued to sicken a sentinel Gulf Coast fish species for at least a year or more, new research shows.

The researchers found that Gulf of Mexico killifish embryos exposed to sediments from oiled locations in 2010 and 2011 show developmental abnormalities, including heart defects, delayed hatching, and reduced hatching success.

The killifish is an environmental indicator species, or a “canary in the coal mine,” used to predict broader exposures and health risks.

Inhaling nanoparticles may injure lungs

Phyllis Brown-UC Davis — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:09:58 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — Breathing two of the most common types of engineered nanomaterials can cause lung inflammation and damage, new research shows.

The ultrafine particles from a large family of materials increasingly are found in a host of household and commercial products, from sunscreens to the ink in copy machines to super-strong but lightweight sporting equipment.

Grassroots schools educate hard-to-reach kids

Karen Nikos-UC Davis — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:56:03 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — An effort to create nonformal schools for children in Bangladesh who would not attend school otherwise is showing promising results.

While more than two million children in Bangladesh lack formal classroom education, international development organizations and corporate sponsors are creating grassroots schools in which students perform on par with their public school counterparts, according to a University of California, Davis, study.

Coaches shape attitudes about sexual assault

Anita Srikameswaran-Pittsburgh — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:00:50 +0000

U. PITTSBURGH (US) — Young male athletes who took part in a program led by coaches were less likely to engage in abusive behaviors toward their female partners.

A year-long evaluation study looked at more than 2,000 male athletes in 16 California high schools from October 2009 to October 2011 who participated in the Coaching Boys into Men program.