University of California San Francisco
Give to UCSF<p><span class="Apple-style-span">With four members diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), three of whom are treated at the nation's leading MS Center at UCSF, a cylcing team will participate in the annual ride through the wine country to raise money to fight MS.</span></p>
<p>A consortium of scientists is reporting that genetic secrets of multiple sclerosis may be buried in 50 “hot spots” in the human genome, a finding that will guide future efforts to assess an individual’s risk of susceptibility and may help develop new drugs for treating this complex disease.</p>
Patients diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) had over twice the risk of developing dementia within seven years after diagnosis compared to those without TBI, in a study of more than 280,000 older veterans conducted by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and UCSF.
<p>UCSF cognitive neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley has used functional brain imaging and EEG studies to discover that older adults fare worse than younger adults at remembering following distractions. He hopes to improve their performance with cognitive training, using a newly developed video game.</p>
<p>Many researchers are finding that by the time a patient seeks treatment for symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, it’s often too late for the available drugs to have an effect. Boxer’s lab is studying very precise eye tracking methods to gauge mental fitness and identify cognitive decline decades before the first symptoms appear.</p>
<p>By mapping neurons and neuron circuitry during movement, Sabes’ lab hopes to one day to be able to print this information back into the brain. If feasible, such therapy could offer new hope to stroke victims whose brains are unable to recover on their own.</p>
<p>Each year, scores of soldiers wounded by explosives suffer from debilitating nerve injuries that render their arms and legs useless. Kim’s research, performed at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco Veterans Affairs hospital, has led to development of artificial nerve grafts to accelerate healing of these injuries.</p>