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UCSF scientists have discovered a new stem cell in the developing human brain. The cell produces nerve cells that help form the neocortex - the site of higher cognitive function -- and likely accounts for the dramatic expansion of the region in the lineages that lead to man, the researchers say.
UCSF researchers have created the first transgenic mouse to display the earliest signs of Parkinson’s disease using the genetic mutation that is known to accompany human forms of the disease.
A UCSF-led study examining the impact of statins on the progression of multiple sclerosis found a lower incidence of new brain lesions in patients taking the cholesterol-lowering drug in the early stages of the disease as compared to a placebo.
To be a truly comprehensive and successful anti-obesity program, First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign must include interventions that target pregnant women, infants, and pre-school-age children, UCSF experts say.
A new report by the Institute of Medicine has found that military service in the Persian Gulf War is a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in some veterans.
An international study published in the March 25 <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em> showed what researchers call a clinical breakthrough in one of the greatest unmet needs for patients with advanced liver disease.
In April 2010, personnel aboard the International Space Station plan to carry out an experiment designed by a San Francisco VA Medical Center researcher that will investigate why the immune system’s T cells stop working in the absence of gravity. The experiment has implications for understanding the body’s ability to mount an immune response on earth, as well.
UCSF scientists report that they were able to prompt a new period of “plasticity,” or capacity for change, in the neural circuitry of the visual cortex of juvenile mice.
UCSF scientists have used a novel cell-based strategy to treat motor symptoms in rats with a disease designed to mimic Parkinson’s disease. The strategy suggests a promising approach, the scientists say, for treating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases and disorders, including epilepsy.
Taking an innovative path toward personalized medicine, scientists for the first time will be able to eliminate – at an early point in a clinical trial — experimental drugs that show poor efficacy, dramatically shortening the time it takes to get the right medication to the right patient with breast cancer.
People are paying close attention to pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig’s message that the obesity epidemic can be blamed on a marked increase in the consumption of a type of sugar called fructose.
UCSF scientists have discovered how a mutated gene known as Kras is able to hijack mouse cells damaged by acute pancreatitis, putting them on the path to becoming pancreatic cancer cells.
A new study co-authored by a UCSF resident physician and published this week examines why low-income countries are making poor progress in meeting international health goals. Study researcher Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, of the Department of Medicine at UCSF and Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, said findings highlight the importance of looking at the entire health experience of a family, rather than just one or a few diseases.
A specific region of the hippocampus, a brain structure that is essential to memory, is significantly smaller in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder than in those without the condition, according to a study by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and UCSF.
A panel of experts appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom recently presented an action plan as the approaching “age wave may bring a potential crisis in Alzheimer’s and dementia care” to San Francisco.