UCLA Health earns top score in Human Rights Campaign Foundation ’s measure of LGBTQ health care
Six locations within the UCLA Health system as well as the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center all received perfect scores and the designation of “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Healthcare Equality Index.The Human Rights Campaign Foundation calls the report “the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey of healthcare facilities on policies and practices dedicated to the equitable treatment and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and employees.”“This designation is a testament to our commitment to fostering leading equity, diversity and inclusi...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 31, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
To fight diseases of aging, scientist makes aging itself the target
When Dr. Ming Guo says that she wants to reverse the aging process, she ’s not outlining a fantastical quest for the Fountain of Youth. She’s looking for ways to defeat incurable diseases.“If we could pause, delay or even reverse aging, we would make a significant impact against numerous diseases,” said Guo, professor of neurology, molecular and medical pharmacology at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.“I want to create a higher quality of life over a healthy life span, rather than just prolonging life.”Her particular approach to her research is inspired by her compassion for her patients who have Alzh...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 24, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Researchers show protein controls process that goes awry in Parkinson ’s disease
As scientists work toward finding a cure for Parkinson ’s disease, one line of research that has emerged focuses on mitochondria, the structures within cells that make energy. The health of those structures is maintained through a quality control system that balances two opposite processes: fission — one mitochondrion splitting in two — and fusion — two becoming one.When there ’s a problem with fission, that system is thrown out of balance. The consequences can include neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, and other serious conditions.For years, scientists have known that one particular prote...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 24, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Hello, Match Day IRL! (And goodbye, Zoom.)
Match Day isback. After two years during which Match Day ceremonies were held virtually due to the pandemic, theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA held the event in person on March 18 — and it was bigger and better than ever. A crowd of 400 excited guests filled Irma and Norman Switzer Plaza behind Geffen Hall, clutching countless smartphone cameras, dozens of floral bouquets and more than a few adorable babies. The scene rippled with embraces and nervous smiles.The 155 students in the medical school ’s class of 2022 perched on the edges of their seats, eager to open their acceptance envelopes and learn to whi...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 22, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
How dangerous is BA.2, the new COVID-19 variant?
As COVID-19 case numbers climb in East Asia and now Europe — a surge largely attributed to the BA.2 subvariant of omicron — it makes sense that concern would rise in the U.S.It ’s happened before during the course of the now two-year-old pandemic: a surge on another continent is followed by a surge in North America.But Shangxin Yang, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, advises against an overreaction.“This is normal and we shouldn’t be too concerned about it,” Yang said. “For those who are not yet boosted, go get boosted. For those who are not vacci...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 21, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA receives $5 million to help translate promising research from lab to clinic
A $5 million gift from the Alfred E. Mann Family Foundation will help ensure that promising UCLA research on new treatments for diseases and innovative biomedical devices can advance from the lab to clinical settings. The gift will establish the Alfred E. Mann Family Foundation Research Acceleration Fund at theEli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA and the Alfred E. Mann Family Foundation Technology Development Fund at theCalifornia NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.Both funds will facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among UCLA scientists.“The research supported by this g...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 21, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA ’s HIV prevention and treatment center receives $7.5 million grant from NIH
The National Institute of Mental Health has renewed its support for UCLA ’s collaborativeCenter for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services, or CHIPTS, with a five-year, $7.5 million grant.The center, made up of leading scientists from UCLA, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the Friends Research Institute and the RAND Corp., has worked for 25 years to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic both locally and globally through scientific research and treatments, network building and collaborations with community and agency partners.The new federal funding will support a research agenda aimed at reducing...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 17, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Potential glioblastoma treatment has roots in UCLA graduate research
A potential new treatment for glioblastoma that recently received approval for clinical trials not only was developed by three UCLA faculty members but also traces its roots back to 2005, when one of the researchers was a UCLA graduate student.The oral medication, a small molecule called ERAS-801, targets a rogue gene found in approximately 60% of people with the aggressive form of brain cancer. Developed by UCLA professors David Nathanson, Michael Jung and Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, the drug would provide a complement to existing treatments — surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.In December, ERAS-801 received a go-ahead fr...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 15, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
The secret to longevity? Ask a yellow-bellied marmot
This study is the closest scientists have gotten to showing that biological processes involved in hibernation are important contributors to their longer-than-expected life span based on their body weight,” said Pinho, now a researcher with the nonprofit Institute of Ecological Research’s Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative in Brazil.“The fact that we are able to detect this reduced aging during hibernation in a wild population means the effect of hibernation on slowing aging is really strong,” said Blumstein, a member of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and a senior author of the study....
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 7, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Black overdose death rate exceeds white rate in U.S. for first time in 20 years
In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of drug overdose deaths among Black Americans surpassed that of whites for the first time since 1999 — a sharp reversal of the situation a decade earlier, when rates were twice as high for whites as for Blacks,new UCLA research shows.Native Americans/Alaska Natives experienced the highest overdose death rate in 2020 and were, along with Blacks and Latinos, among the groups with the largest increase in overdose deaths per 100,000 people over the previous year. Death rates for all four racial and ethnic groups studied, including whites, not only climbed in 2020 b...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 2, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA study spotlights gaps in health care access among California ’s LGBT community
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults in California face significant barriers in accessing health care despite having similar or better rates of health insurance coverage than heterosexual or cisgender adults, anew UCLA report shows.These barriers include a lack of timely access to needed care, not having a usual source of care, having trouble finding providers and experiencing unfair treatment, according to researchers from UCLA ’sCenter for Health Policy Research andWilliams Institute who conducted the study.Using data from the health policy center ’sCalifornia Health Interview Survey from 2015 to 2020, the r...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 28, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
In study led by UCLA professor, woman with HIV is in remission
UCLA researchers speaking at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections have presented the first case of a U.S. woman living with HIV-1 that is in remission.The woman, who was diagnosed with acute HIV in 2013 and acute myeloid leukemia in 2017, received umbilical cord blood cells as a treatment for her cancer. The leukemia has been in remission for four-and-a-half years, and there has been no rebound of HIV in the 14 months since antiretroviral therapy ended.The woman was part of a multicenter study that was funded by the National Institutes of Health and led by Dr. Yvonne Bryson, chief of pediatric i...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 17, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA-led team gets $8.4 million NIH grant to probe mysteries of Valley Fever
Why do some people infected with Valley Fever develop a potentially fatal form of the disease that ravages their body while most experience only mild symptoms or none at all?A team led by UCLA ’s Dr. Manish Butte has been awarded an $8.4 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study this and other questions related to genetic risk factors and immune responses to the disease, which occurs when people breathe in microscopic spores of the fungusCoccidioides that are present in soil.First identified in Argentina in the late 1800s, Valley Fever today is seen in a geographic swath that s...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 15, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Doctors in space: UCLA fellowship prepares new generation of flight surgeons
As the frequency of space travel grows and humans inch ever closer to long-distance, interplanetary missions, the need for specially trained medical personnel who can support the health, safety and well-being of astronauts and other travelers aboard spacecraft and in extraterrestrial environments has become increasingly important.UCLA ’s newly launchedSpace Medicine Fellowship— the first of its kind in the nation — will soon begin training members of this new generation of flight surgeons. The unique two-year program, which has accepted its first fellow, involves rotations at aerospace company SpaceX, completion of ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 11, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Betting on the Super Bowl: All in good fun?
Who will win the opening coin toss for Super Bowl LVI? How long will the national anthem last? Which of the five artists performing at halftime will take the stage first? What color Gatorade will be dumped on the winning team ’s coach?These are some of the many bets that can be placed on Sunday ’s big game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.“The Super Bowl is the flagship of gambling,” said Dr. Tim Fong, co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program.While most game-day bets are just part of the fun, gambling can become a devastating addiction for some people.With more ways to legally bet on the Super Bowl than eve...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 11, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
