A decade after gene therapy, children born with deadly immune disorder remain healthy
Over a decade ago, UCLA physician-scientists began using a pioneering gene therapy they developed to treat children born with a rare and deadly immune system disorder.They now report that the effects of the therapy appear to be long-lasting, with 90% of patients who received the treatment eight to 11 years ago still disease-free.ADA-SCID, oradenosine deaminase –deficient severe combined immunodeficiency, is caused by mutations in the gene that creates the ADA enzyme, which is essential to a functioning immune system. For babies with the disease, exposure to everyday germs can be fatal, and if untreated, most will die wit...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 15, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
A visit from a social robot improves hospitalized children ’s outlook
A new study from UCLA finds a visit from human-controlled robot encourages a positive outlook and improves medical interactions for children who are hospitalized.Robin is a social companion robot that stands about 4 feet tall and has the capabilities to move, talk and play with others while being remotely controlled by humans. Specialists fromUCLA Mattel Children ’s Hospital’s Chase Child Life Program conducted hour-long video visits with young patients using Robin, comparing it to interactions using a standard computer tablet, from October 2020 to April 2021.At the conclusion of the study period, children and thei...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 8, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Concussions and kids: Project co-led by UCLA gets $10 million grant from NIH
A research project co-led by theUCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Programaimed at improving the assessment and treatment of concussions in school-aged children has been awarded $10 million by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health.The grant to the Four Corners Youth Consortium, agroup of academic medical centers studying pediatric concussions, will supportConcussion Assessment, Research and Education for Kids, or CARE4Kids, a multisite study that will enroll more than 1,300 children and teens nationwide, including an estimated 240 in Southern California.CARE4Kids re...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 7, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA study maps major circuit in the mouse brain
A UCLA study using mice reveals new insights into the wiring of a major circuit in the brain that is attacked by Parkinson ’s and Huntington’s diseases. The findings could hone scientists’ understanding of how diseases arise in the human brain and pinpoint new targets for treatment.Published today in Nature, the research is part of a package of 17 articles bytheBRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network. The national consortium of neuroscientists aims to unlock the mysteries of the primary motor cortex, a part of the mammalian brain that controls movement.With funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and the ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 6, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
$6.2 million NIH grant to support UCLA study of how COVID-19 causes multiple organ failure
Researchers from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have received a $6.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how the SARS-CoV-2 virus causes damage throughout the body.The Director ’s Transformative Research Award was presented through the NIH’s prestigious High Risk, High Reward program, which supports creative and unconventional approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. What makes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, so dangerous for some people is that although it is a respiratory virus, it can wre...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 5, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
mRNA COVID vaccines highly effective at preventing symptomatic infection in health workers
COVID-19 are highly effective in preventing symptomatic illness among health care workers in real-world settings.The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that health care personnel who received a two-dose regimen of Pfizer –BioNTech vaccine had an 89% lower risk for symptomatic illness than those who were unvaccinated. For those who received the two-dose regimen of the Moderna vaccine, the risk was reduced by 96%.The researchers also found that the vaccines appeared to work just as well for people who are over age 50, are in racial or ethnic groups that have been disproportionately affected by C...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 5, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA raises $611 million in 2020 –21, supporting students and advancing critical research
UCLA raised more than $611 million in gifts and pledges in the fiscal year ending June 30, exceeding its annual goal and drawing donors from all 50 states and 72 countries.“Generous donors at all levels have continued to partner with UCLA to effect meaningful change on campus, in the community and around the world,” said Chancellor Gene Block. “Despite a challenging year, our friends have once again demonstrated their extraordinary commitment to UCLA’s mission of education, research and service.”In response to conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, many donors focused on students ’ need to adapt to distan...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 4, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Lara Cushing named to new Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity
Lara Cushing, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences whose work focuses on issues of environmental justice, has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity at theUCLA Fielding School of Public Health.The endowed chair was established by Dr. Jonathan Fielding, a national public health leader and distinguished professor-in-residence at the Fielding School, and Karin Fielding, also a longtime public health advocate, to support the work of an early-career faculty member who is developing innovative ways to solve persistent health dis parities and...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Black patients ’ Lyme disease often diagnosed late, possibly due to missed signs
FINDINGSA UCLA study suggests that many physicians may not have the knowledge or training to properly recognize how Lyme disease appears on the skin of Black patients. The disease, caused by the tick-borne Borrelia bacterium, generally begins with a bull ’s-eye–shaped rash on the skin, along with fever, headache, chills and muscle pain; if not diagnosed promptly and treated with antibiotics, it can lead to more severe and long-lasting symptoms.UCLA ’s Dr. Dan Ly found that approximately 1 in 3 Black patients who were newly diagnosed with Lyme disease already had related neurological complications such as meningitis, ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 1, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Ophthalmologist Patricia Bath inducted posthumously into National Inventors Hall of Fame
Dr. Patricia Bath, the first female faculty member in ophthalmology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been inducted posthumously into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.She and Marian Croak, vice president of engineering at Google, are the first Black women to be honored by the organization, an achievement noted byNational Public Radio, CNN andFast Company. “Dr. Bath was a trailblazer for women and minorities in the field of ophthalmology,” said Dr. Bartly Mondino, department chair of ophthalmology and director of the UCLA Stein Eye Institute.Bath is credited with inventing the Laserphaco Probe...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - September 29, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center receives $5 million CIRM grant for research training program
TheEli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLAhas been awarded $5 million by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state ’s stem cell agency, to train young scientists and physicians to become leaders in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field.The five-year grant will enable the center to expand its Stem Cell Training Program, which was established in 2006 and funded by CIRM until 2015, when the agency changed its funding priorities. Since then, the program has been sustained by philanthropy. With the passage of Proposition 14 last fall, however, CIRM has on...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - September 23, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA research reveals how a year of change affected Californians ’ health
Although more Californians than ever had health insurance in 2020, disparities in access to health care among the state ’s racial and ethnic groups was magnified during a year of unprecedented challenges and changes.Those are among the key findings of the latestCalifornia Health Interview Survey, which is conducted by theUCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The survey included responses from 22,661 California households, including 21,949 adults, 1,365 adolescents and 3,548 children.“This is one of the most important data releases in the survey’s 20-year history because it sheds light on how impactful the pandemic ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - September 22, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA receives $13 million contract to expand COVID-19 testing
A new $13.3 million contract from the National Institutes of Health ’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative, or RADx, will enable theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA to expand its capacity to process COVID-19 tests.UCLA ’s diagnostic laboratory will be able to process up to 150,000 COVID-19 tests per day usingSwabSeq, a sequencing technology developed at UCLA. The technology pools thousands of saliva samples and returns individual test results in less than 24 hours.“UCLA developed SwabSeq and brought the technology to market in only six months — a process that normally takes years,” saidEleaza...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - September 20, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Do doctors treat pain differently based on their patients ’ race?
Physicians prescribed opioids more often to their white patients who complained of new-onset low back pain than to their Black, Asian and Hispanic patients during the early days of the national opioid crisis, when prescriptions for these powerful painkillers were surging but their dangers were not fully apparent,according to a UCLA study.The findings suggest that doctors may have commonly dispensed pain treatments unequally based on race and ethnicity. The study shows that physicians were more likely to prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs — a less-powerful alternative — to their patients of color...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - September 10, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Scientists develop brain organoids with complex neural activity
Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have developed brain organoids — 3D brain-like structures grown from human stem cells — that show organized waves of activity similar to those found in living human brains.Then, while studying organoids grown from stem cells derived from patients with the neurological disorder Rett syndrome, the scientists were able to observe patterns of electrical activity resembling seizures, a hallmark of the condition.The study, published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, broadens the list of brain conditions that can...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - August 23, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
