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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.
Reducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon (or three grams) per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year, according to a new study. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in healthcare costs, the researchers add.
Low vitamin D blood levels are associated with a significantly higher risk of relapse attacks in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who develop the disease during childhood, according to a study conducted by researchers from UCSF.
Non-smokers with both long-term exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke and narrowing of the artery that brings blood to the brain had three times the risk of developing dementia than people without either of those risk factors, according to a study led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
UCSF and Kaiser team up to beef up a powerful resource for use in identifying risks for disease and factors that promote healthy aging.
Scientists have identified a gene underlying a disease that causes temporary paralysis of skeletal muscle. The finding, they say, illustrates how investigations of rare genetic diseases can drive insights into more common ones.
UCSF studies of frontotemporal dementia may shed light on Thanksgiving and year-round overeating.
UCSF’s Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research, which finances creative, risky projects that have the potential to transform their fields, has had an impressive track record.
Elizabeth Blackburn, professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UC San Francisco, received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her research on telomeres, tiny
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.
UCSF researchers have developed a new approach to identify specific genes that influence how cancer cells respond to drugs and how they become resistant. This strategy, which involves producing diverse genetic mutations that result in leukemia and associating specific mutations with treatment outcomes, will enable researchers to better understand how drug resistance occurs in leukemia and other cancers, and has important long-term implications for the development of more effective therapies.
Tiny, solitary spikes that stick out of nearly every cell in the body play a central role in a type of skin cancer, new research has found. The discovery in mice shows that the microscopic structures known as primary cilia can either suppress or promote this skin cancer, depending on the mutation triggering the disease.
Scientists have discovered the first gene involved in regulating the optimal length of human sleep, offering a window into a key aspect of slumber, an enigmatic phenomenon that is critical to human physical and mental health
UCSF has received a five-year grant to establish a multi-campus center where researchers will study how stress and socioeconomic status influence weight.
Older veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder were almost twice as likely to develop dementia as veterans without PTSD in a study of more than 180,000 veterans led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.
UCSF researchers have discovered inherited DNA that increases risk for the most deadly brain cancers.
Sugar is a poison, says Robert Lustig, MD, UCSF obesity expert and pediatric endocrinologist.
Scientists have long thought that processes occurring during sleep were responsible for cementing the salient experiences of the day into long-term memories. Now, however, a study of scampering rats suggests that the mechanisms at work during sleep are also active while the animals are awake -- and that they encode events more accurately.
Narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that can cause sufferers to suddenly lose muscle tone and start dreaming, is an autoimmune disease, a team led by UCSF and Stanford scientists finds.
UCSF researchers have identified a correlation between higher levels of glutamate, which occurs naturally in the brain as a byproduct of metabolism, and greater disease burden in multiple sclerosis patients. The study is the first to measure glutamate toxicity in the brain over time and suggests an improved method for tracking the disease and predicting its course.
Researchers have identified a gene that controls the rapid production and differentiation of the stem cells that produce all blood cell types -- a discovery that could eventually open the door to more streamlined treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers, in which blood cells proliferate out of control.
Healthy patients age 70 and older who could benefit from colon cancer screening are not being adequately screened, while ill patients are being screened unnecessarily, according to a study of more than 27,000 veteran patients led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Researchers with the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a five-year, nationwide, longitudinal study of possible markers of Alzheimer’s disease, announced that a genomic analysis of the 800 participants in the study is more than 95 percent complete, and that the data will be shared with scientists around the world for further analysis.
Lung cancer research at UCSF is poised to leap forward, thanks to a big bank. No, not some teetering financial institution down the street. What UCSF has is an invaluable tissue bank.
Starting in January, a UCSF postdoctoral researcher will launch the first-ever study of the effects of prolonged nonuse on human cartilage.
A nationwide study of over 280,000 women showed that postmenopausal women who are overweight or obese have advanced breast cancer at significantly higher rates than women of normal weight or less than normal weight.