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UCSF scientists working in the lab used a chemical found in an anti-wrinkle cream to prevent the death of nerve cells damaged by mutations that cause an inherited form of Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers have probed deep into the cell’s genome to begin learning the “grammar” that helps determine whether or not a gene gets switched on to make the protein it encodes, advancing efforts to use gene and cell-based therapies to treat disease.
A team of investigators led by UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes has found a way to map an enzyme’s underlying molecular machinery, revealing patterns that could allow them to predict how an enzyme behaves – and what happens when this process disrupted.
The ability to form blood vessels is one of evolution’s crowning achievements. Now, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have identified the molecular signals that direct the process of committing endothelial cells to become arteries or veins during embryonic development.
A new UCSF study highlights the potential importance of the vast majority of human DNA that lies outside of genes within the cell.
New research conducted at UCSF sheds lights on how fingers and toes are formed in the womb, a finding likely to fundamentally reshape biologists' understanding of how cells communicate to each other during development.
<p>Researchers at UCSF have identified the lynchpin that activates brown fat cells, which burn fat molecules instead of storing them, making them the focus of pharmaceutical research aimed at fighting obesity.</p>
<p>UCSF and its affiliates have been major players in the transformation of San Francisco as a leading center of innovation in health care and biosciences, according to a new report released Wednesday.</p>
<p>Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite transmitted from person to person by the bite of a mosquito. In the past two centuries, numerous research and public health efforts worldwide have sought to combat this ancient scourge as this timeline shows.</p>
Scientists have known for years that when vampire bats tear through an animal’s skin with their razor-sharp teeth, their noses guide them to the best spots – where a precise bite will strike a vein and spill forth nourishing blood. But nobody knew exactly how bats knew where to bite – until now.
Researchers at UCSF and in Michigan, North Carolina and Spain have discovered how genetic mutations cause a number of rare human diseases, which include Meckel syndrome, Joubert syndrome and several other disorders.
<p>Having developed an algorithm that discovered a large quantity of drug-producing bacteria in and on humans, Fischbach has turned his lab’s attention to studying their populations and interactions with each other. This, he posits, can greatly influence a person’s overall health and disease.</p>
A 10-month study of healthy honey bees by UCSF scientists has identified four new viruses that infect bees, while revealing that each of the viruses or bacteria previously linked to colony collapse is present in healthy hives as well.
<p>Experts at UCSF and Caltech are pushing the boundaries of creative problem solving to address important clinical problems with the hope that the talent pool at both institutions, combined with an entrepreneurial spirit, will advance health care innovation.</p>
Men and women had starkly different immune system responses to chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, with men showing no response and women showing a strong response, in two studies by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.
Researchers exploring human metabolism at UCSF have uncovered a handful of chemical compounds that regulate fat storage in worms, offering a new tool for understanding obesity and finding future treatments for diseases associated with obesity.
UCSF researchers have developed a new approach to decoding the vast information embedded in an organism’s genome, while shedding light on exactly how cells interpret their genetic material to create RNA messages and launch new processes in the cell.
A team of UCSF researchers has engineered E. coli with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations.
UCSF environmental health specialist Gina Solomon is calling for improved scientific study of and publicly available and robust data about the health hazards posed by the BP oil disaster.
Stefan Habelitz, an engineer and materials scientist, is blazing a new research trail by investigating tooth enamel in the UCSF School of Dentistry's Marshall Lab, where researchers fruitfully focus on every facet of teeth, knowing they’re nothing to take for granted…
A novel technique created at UCSF to deliver a growth factor directly to brain cells has shown promising results in treating Parkinson's symptoms and could enter human clinical trials as early as next year.
Larissa Podust, PhD, is working on a new drug for Chagas disease, a neglected scourge.
For his groundbreaking work on the sensation of touch, David Julius, PhD, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Physiology, has been named to receive the 2010 Shaw Prize in Life Sciences and Medicine.
Scientists have identified a gene family that plays a key role in one of the earliest stages of development in which an embryo distinguishes its left side from the right and determines how organs should be positioned within the body. The finding in mice likely will lead to a better understanding of how certain birth defects occur in humans.
Molecular biologist Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD, 60, of the University of California, San Francisco, received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on December 10th, 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Telomeres — which are the DNA repeats that form the tips of chromosomes and are produced by the telomerase enzyme — play a crucial, and curious, role in the life of the cell.
Stanley B. Prusiner, MD, 55, today was named to receive the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering and characterizing an entirely new class of proteins, called prions, which cause several rare and fatal neurodegenerative diseases.