Key Decision Point for Brain Development Identified
In a new study, UCSF and Stanford researchers have identified a central switch that appears to control when neural progenitor cells stop multiplying and start differentiating into mature neurons.
![Microcopic image of mouse brain with cells colored in red, yellow, green, and blue](/sites/default/files/styles/news_card__image/public/2021-02/mouse-brain-neural-precursor-Panagiotakos.jpg)
University of California San Francisco
Give to UCSFIn a new study, UCSF and Stanford researchers have identified a central switch that appears to control when neural progenitor cells stop multiplying and start differentiating into mature neurons.
UCSF researchers found that mice in which activity of a protein called eIF4E is diminished, either genetically or pharmaceutically, gain only half the weight of other mice, even if all the mice eat a high-fat diet.
A UCSF team has engineered a tiny antibody capable of neutralizing the coronavirus.
A group at Gladstone Institutes and UCSF has demonstrated that a large-scale and systematic genetic approach can indeed yield reliable and detailed information on the structure of protein complexes.
Giant lizards with superpowered hearts. Hairless rodents that don’t seem to age. Songbirds that babble like human babies. These and other scurrying, soaring, and slithering wonders are teaching scientists how our own bodies work – and how to fix them.
In the new study, UCSF researchers showed rapid restoration of youthful cognitive abilities in aged mice, accompanied by a rejuvenation of brain and immune cells that could help explain improvements in brain function.
Finding medicines that can kill cancer cells while leaving normal tissue unscathed is a Holy Grail of oncology research.
SARS-CoV-2 uses its distinctive spike to latch onto a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of a human cell. Once there it prompts the human cell to ferry the virus inside. Then, the virus co-opts human enzymes to make copies of itself and spread to other cells.
For a tiny embryo to develop into an adult organism, its cells must develop in precise patterns and interact with their neighbors in carefully orchestrated ways. To create complex tissues and organs –
Researchers at UCSF are tackling antibiotic resistance using a different approach: redesigning existing antibiotic molecules to evade a bacterium’s resistance mechanisms
UCSF scientists have devised a novel approach to halting the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.
UCSF researchers have now determined how the TRPA1 molecule manages to sense such a diverse variety of dangerous chemicals – and do so with enough sensitivity to let you flee before suffering too much tissue damage.
Why are more men than women dying of COVID-19? Scientist Faranak Fattahi, PhD, has found a clue.
UCSF researchers have become to the first to solve the structure of a hard-working protein that helps reload neurons for repeated firing.
As people around the world try to envision recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, much attention has been paid to antibody testing as a way to identify people who have developed immunity to the virus. UCSF experts explain how antibody testing works, who it can be most useful for and why we should be cautious.
Though many hopes are hanging on the development of a vaccine or drug that targets the novel coronavirus directly, a UCSF-led team is taking an unconventional approach: target the host – in other words, you.
UC San Francisco researchers have finally identified the cellular circuit responsible for conveying stress signals from inside mitochondria to the integrated stress response, a discovery that may have important implications for treating the many debilitating diseases associated with mitochondrial stress.
A simple blood test may soon be able to diagnose patients with two common forms of dementia – Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia – and tell the two apart.
Researchers screened a massive library of over 150 million virtual molecules and discovered the first drugs that selectively target one of two mammalian melatonin receptors that modulate sleep-wake cycles.
UCSF–led research team has discovered the first conclusive evidence that natural selection may also occur at the level of the epigenome and has done so for tens of millions of years.
The breakthroughs came as Jack Levin was trying to find out if the cells normally circulating in the horseshoe crab’s blood, called amebocytes, triggered clotting, as platelets do in human blood.
After phages infect bacteria, they construct an impenetrable “safe room” inside of their host, which protects vulnerable phage DNA from antiviral enzymes. This compartment, which resembles a cell nucleus, is the most effective CRISPR shield ever discovered in viruses.
Research shows that after cells are subjected to certain stressful treatments, they appear to gain a new “superpower” that allows them to grow twice as fast as normal — a feature the authors call “supergrowth.”
Using standard animal model of Down syndrome, scientists were able to correct the learning and memory deficits associated with the condition with drugs that target the body’s response to cellular stresses.