Everyone has a genetic story.
For artist Geraldine Ondrizek, an art professor at Portland’s Reed College, her story begins with the tragic loss of her child to a condition caused by a genetic anomaly. It’s a story that starts with her efforts to piece together her family’s genetic history and that has brought her, in the years since, to a beautiful intersection of science and art that today defines the very essence of her work. (more…)
Discovery could help lead to prevention of radical surgery for rare childhood disease
Hemimegalencephaly is a rare but dramatic condition of infancy in which half the brain is malformed and much larger than the other half. Its cause is unknown, but the current treatment is radical: the surgical disconnection and removal of the diseased half of the brain.
In a paper published in the June 24 online issue of the journal Nature Genetics, a team of doctors and scientists says mutations in a trio of genes that help regulate cell size and proliferation are likely culprits in causing the disorder, though perhaps not the only ones.
These mutations, known as de novo somatic mutations, are genetic changes in the cells of the brain. Because they are in non-sex organs, the mutations are not transmitted to the child by either parent. (more…)
Compared to normal cells, cancer cells have a prodigious appetite for glucose, the result of a shift in cell metabolism known as aerobic glycolysis or the “Warburg effect.” Researchers focusing on this effect as a possible target for cancer therapies have examined how biochemical signals present in cancer cells regulate the altered metabolic state. (more…)
UCLA biochemists have mapped the structure of a key protein–RNA complex that is required for the assembly of telomerase, an enzyme important in both cancer and aging. (more…)
Heart transplant patients are notorious for developing an aggressive form of coronary artery disease that can often result in heart failure, death or the need for repeat transplantation. The condition can also have a negative impact on future cardiac procedures, such as stenting. (more…)
I know that you hope, when you get older, that your children will be there to help you out. That they will take care of you like you took care of them. But I want to warn you now- do not count on it. You cannot count on other people to take care of you. Friends, relatives, even children will not help you out. If they do help you then great but do not set your mind, heart, and financial future to that.
Let me give you an example. An elderly friend of the family got divorced after many, many years. Now on her own for the first time, she thought she could count on her kids to help her out. She moved in with her oldest son. After a few months, things of hers started disappearing. Eventually, she confronted him and he revealed he had been selling her stuff to pay for her ‘expenses’. (more…)
Unique UCLA program that teaches social skills proves effective over long term
Teenagers with autism spectrum disorder are in a bind. The disorder is characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction, but it’s a continuum, so some teens diagnosed with ASD are considered high functioning and healthy enough to be “mainstreamed” in school.
But without the proper social skills, even mainstreamed teens don’t quite fit into the general social milieu of middle school or high school. As a result, they suffer from all the slings and arrows of that world.
Since 2006, however, the UCLA PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) clinic has assisted high-functioning teens with ASD by literally teaching them the strategies they need to fit in better with their peers. And while previous research demonstrated that the program was effective, it wasn’t known whether the new skills “stuck” with these teens after they completed the PEERS classes. (more…)
If your father and grandfather waited until they were older before having children, you might experience life-extending benefits. Biologists assume that a slow pace of aging requires that the body invest more resources in repairing cells and tissues. (more…)
