Former faculty member gives UCLA $10 million to advance ocular genetics research
UCLA has received a $10 million commitment from Dr. Bronwyn Bateman to establish a center for ocular genetics center at the UCLA Stein Eye Institute. The gift will support research projects as well as the center ’s startup costs and greatest needs moving forward.Bateman is a former professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.“As a long-standing partner of Stein Eye, Bronwyn has helped advance many of our vision programs,” said Dr. Bartly Mondino, UCLA’s Bradley R. Straatsma, M.D. Professor of Ophthalmology and director of the Stein Eye Institute. “We are grateful for t...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 7, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
In memoriam: Dr. Mark De Antonio, 67, psychiatrist who cared for vulnerable youth
Dr. Mark De Antonio, a clinical psychiatry professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, died Dec. 31, after an extended illness. He was 67.De Antonio, who joined the faculty at UCLA in 1988, also served as director of inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric service at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. He was known for his passion to provide care for severely mentally ill and vulnerable youth, especially those with developmental disabilities. During his career, he received numerous accolades and awards for his teaching and clinical expertise.“De Antonio continued working up...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 7, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Sweating the small stuff: Smartwatch developed at UCLA measures key stress hormone
The human body responds to stress, from the everyday to the extreme, by producing a hormone called cortisol.To date, it has been impractical to measure cortisol as a way to potentially identify conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress, in which levels of the hormone are elevated. Cortisol levels traditionally have been evaluated through blood samples by professional labs, and while those measurements can be useful for diagnosing certain diseases, they fail to capture changes in cortisol levels over time.Now, a UCLA research team has developed a device that could be a major step forward: a smartwatch that ass...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 7, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA scientists identify biomarker signature that predicts side effects from some cancer treatments
UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have identified a biomarker signature that predicts which patients are likely to be affected by serious side effects that can occur during a type of cancer treatment.The study, led by Dr. Joanne Weidhaas, a UCLA professor of radiation oncology and the director of the division of molecular and cellular oncology at UCLA Health, was published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.The study focused onanti-PD1/PDL1 therapy, which has emerged as a promising approach for treating several types of cancer but which causes serious side effects in up to 30% of patients. T...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 4, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA to host disability rights advocate Judy Heumann for Regents ’ Lecture
Knowing that higher education can play a powerful role advancing disability justice, inclusivity and equity, UCLA ’s School of Nursing and disability studies program are welcoming internationally renowned disability rights activist Judy Heumann to campus for a week of conversations, talks and workshops.Heumann will be here Feb. 7-10. The culminating event will be the Regents ’ Lecture on Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. PST. The lecture will be held online and is free and open to the public. The Regents of the University of California established the Regents ’ Professors and Lecturers Program to permit the appointment, on a visi...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 2, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Despite overall gains in health coverage and access to care, disparities persist in California
As of 2020, more than 2.5 million Californians age 64 and under had no health insurance coverage, according to a study by theUCLA Center for Health Policy Research.The report is based on an analysis of the center ’s California Health Interview Survey from 2019 and 2020.The researchers analyzed insurance rates in California. They found that adults aged 19 to 25 had the lowest rates of employment-based insurance (51.7%, compared to 61% to 66% for other age groups), even though they can remain on their parents ’ health coverage.In addition, just 43.1% of Latino women and 55.6% of Black women aged 19 to 64 had employer-bas...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 31, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Use of Alzheimer ’s drug aducanumab raises concerns about Medicare spending
FINDINGSA UCLA-led cost analysis of the controversial new Alzheimer ’s disease drug aducanumab shows that ancillary care services, such as additional MRIs and neurologist visits to monitorthe potentialbrain swelling and bleeding associated with the medication, account for nearly 20% of total Medicare costs related to the drug, or $6,564 per patient per year.With 1.1 to 5.7 million Medicare beneficiaries who have mild dementia or cognitive impairment identified as potentially eligible for the drug, these ancillary services could substantially increase annual Medicare spending, the analysis shows.BACKGROUNDIn June 2021, th...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 27, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA food studies institute to tackle global food challenges
Increasingly, scholars are studying food — its production, preparation, sharing, consumption and disposal — to better understand and tackle global challenges such as climate change, health and social disparities and labor conditions, and to improve access to information.Already a leader in the emerging field offood studies, UCLA has created an interdisciplinary institute devoted to research, teaching and policy about food, made possible by an anonymous $13.5 million gift.The UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies will bring together faculty, staff, students, chefs and members of the community and house UCLA ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 24, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Access to vital health services fell during COVID, particularly for poorer Americans
Americans ’ use of common outpatient health services dipped sharply at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, then rebounded to near-normal levels by the end of 2020, only to decline again during the second surge in January–February 2021, according to a new UCLA-led study.But the 2020 recovery in care wasn ’t equal for all, researchers found. Some of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged patients — those with Medicaid or Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibility insurance — were far less likely than those with other insurance plans to return to using outpatient services at rates approaching normal, pre-pandemic levels....
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 22, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
The lessons of COVID-19, two years on
When Robert Kim-Farley heard that COVID-19 had reached the United States, on Jan. 20, 2020, he immediately recalled the grim images from China that he had been seeing online, with people dying in the streets outside of overwhelmed hospitals.“The pandemic has reached us, and it’s going to be bad,” the UCLA epidemiologist thought.With the U.S. reaching the second anniversary of that first U.S. case, Kim-Farley has been reflecting on what the scientific community got right during the medical crisis, and what it could have done better.On a scale of 1 to 10, he said he ’d give the U.S. a 7 for how local, state and feder...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 20, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Breastfeeding mothers don ’t pass COVID to infants, study suggests
In the largest study to date on COVID-19 and breast milk, a UCLA-led research team found no evidence that the virus is transmitted from mothers to children through breastfeeding.The study,published today in the journal Pediatric Research, analyzed breast milk samples taken from 110 lactating women between March and September 2020. Of these women, 65 had tested positive for COVID-19, 36 were symptomatic but were not tested and nine had symptoms but tested negative.While researchers initially found some COVID-19 genetic material, or RNA, in seven of the samples belonging to the 101 women who either tested positive or were sy...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 19, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
How California ’s Whole Person Care pilot program met the challenges of the pandemic
Serving the needs of some of California ’s most high-need low-income patients — those who frequently use emergency rooms for care and are affected by multiple chronic conditions, severe mental illness, substance abuse issues, homelessness or recent incarceration — can prove difficult even during the best of times. But the COVID-19 c risis presented an entirely new set of hurdles.Anew study by theUCLA Center for Health Policy Research examines how the state ’s Whole Person Care program, a pilot project launched in 2016 to integrate medical care, mental health services and social supports like housing aid for Medi-C...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 18, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA leaders address employee questions about omicron variant at town hall
As the omicron wave nears its projected peak in the United States, UCLA leaders hosted a town hall for faculty and staff on Jan. 13 to offer the latest information on policies designed to keep the Bruin community as healthy as possible. The hour-long Zoom meeting addressed topics ranging from how staff and students can get free masks to the factors under consideration for returning to in-person work and learning.Some highlights:New mask requirements: Whenever indoors, all students, faculty and staff must use upgraded masks, such as well-fitting KN95s, N95s or medical-grade masks. UCLA is making masks available for free, ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 14, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Signaling mechanisms in pancreatic cancer cells could provide new target for treatment
Research led by scientists at theUCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center provides new insights into molecular “crosstalk” in pancreas cancer cells. The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, identifies vulnerabilities that could provide a target for therapeutic drugs already being studied for several different types of cancer. It was led by Dr. Caius Radu, a UCLA professor of molecular and medical pharmacology, and Dr. Timothy Donahue, a pancreatic cancer surgeon.The study centered on an immune system signaling molecule that impairs the proliferation of cancer cells in lab studies but tends to have the oppos...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 14, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA-led team refines ‘kick and kill’ strategy aimed at eliminating HIV-infected cells
In a study using mice, a UCLA-led team of researchers have improved upon a method they developed in 2017 that was designed to kill HIV-infected cells. The advance could move scientists a step closer to being able to reduce the amount of virus, or even eliminate it, from infected people who are dependent on lifesaving medications to keep the virus from multiplying and illness at bay.The strategy, described in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications, uses cells that are naturally produced by the immune system to kill infected cells that hide in the body, potentially eradicating them, said Dr. Jocelyn Kim, an assistan...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 11, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
