UC Science Today

The microbial communities, or microbiomes, that account for 90 percent of our body’s cells can greatly influence human and environmental health. To get a better understanding of this microbial world and manipulate them to our benefit, the University of California, San Diego has established the Microbiome and Microbial Sciences Initiative. Robert Knight, one of the world’s experts on the microbiome will lead a research-focused Center for Microbiome Innovation. He says so much has been learned about this field in the last several years due to the dramatic drop in cost of DNA sequencing. Knight is also part of the very successful American Gut Project.

"Basically the idea was to figure out how to structure the project so it could be self-supporting, so it’s one of the largest crowd-sourced, crowd-funded citizen science projects that we’re aware of. We’ve currently sequenced over six thousand kits and released the DNA sequence publicly so that any interested member of the public can just look at all of that data and see what the microbiomes look like."

The microbial communities, or microbiomes, that account for 90 percent of our body’s cells can greatly influence human and environmental health. To get a better understanding of this microbial world and manipulate them to our benefit, the University of California, San Diego has established the Microbiome and Microbial Sciences Initiative. Robert Knight, one of the world’s experts on the microbiome will lead a research-focused Center for Microbiome Innovation. He says so much has been learned about this field in the last several years due to the dramatic drop in cost of DNA sequencing. Knight is also part of the very successful American Gut Project.

"Basically the idea was to figure out how to structure the project so it could be self-supporting, so it’s one of the largest crowd-sourced, crowd-funded citizen science projects that we’re aware of. We’ve currently sequenced over six thousand kits and released the DNA sequence publicly so that any interested member of the public can just look at all of that data and see what the microbiomes look like."

The microbial communities, or microbiomes, that account for 90 percent of our body’s cells can greatly influence human and environmental health. To get a better understanding of this microbial world and manipulate them to our benefit, the University of California, San Diego has established the Microbiome and Microbial Sciences Initiative. Robert Knight, one of the world’s experts on the microbiome will lead a research-focused Center for Microbiome Innovation. He says so much has been learned about this field in the last several years due to the dramatic drop in cost of DNA sequencing. Knight is also part of the very successful American Gut Project.

"Basically the idea was to figure out how to structure the project so it could be self-supporting, so it’s one of the largest crowd-sourced, crowd-funded citizen science projects that we’re aware of. We’ve currently sequenced over six thousand kits and released the DNA sequence publicly so that any interested member of the public can just look at all of that data and see what the microbiomes look like."

In a relatively short period of time, there’s been increasing research supporting what many health care providers have long known – that comprehensive, palliative care that treats both symptoms and a person’s emotional needs during a serious illness or at the end of life, can not only vastly improve quality of life, but in many cases prolong it. Dr. Steve Pantilat, Director of the Palliative Care Program at the University of California, San Francisco says while palliative care has risen, it’s not high enough.

"Getting palliative care still depends largely on your doctor offering it to you or making it available. Where we need to go is to have public demand."

Pantilat likens it to the way we are born now in America – not too long ago, it used to be Mom in an operating room and Dad in a waiting room. But there was a demand from patients for the birthing rooms of today.

"End of life is changing, but it will change faster and it will change better, if the public is engaged in this process as well and demands it."

In a relatively short period of time, there’s been increasing research supporting what many health care providers have long known – that comprehensive, palliative care that treats both symptoms and a person’s emotional needs during a serious illness or at the end of life, can not only vastly improve quality of life, but in many cases prolong it. Dr. Steve Pantilat, Director of the Palliative Care Program at the University of California, San Francisco says while palliative care has risen, it’s not high enough.

"Getting palliative care still depends largely on your doctor offering it to you or making it available. Where we need to go is to have public demand."

Pantilat likens it to the way we are born now in America – not too long ago, it used to be Mom in an operating room and Dad in a waiting room. But there was a demand from patients for the birthing rooms of today.

"End of life is changing, but it will change faster and it will change better, if the public is engaged in this process as well and demands it."

In a relatively short period of time, there’s been increasing research supporting what many health care providers have long known – that comprehensive, palliative care that treats both symptoms and a person’s emotional needs during a serious illness or at the end of life, can not only vastly improve quality of life, but in many cases prolong it. Dr. Steve Pantilat, Director of the Palliative Care Program at the University of California, San Francisco says while palliative care has risen, it’s not high enough.

"Getting palliative care still depends largely on your doctor offering it to you or making it available. Where we need to go is to have public demand."

Pantilat likens it to the way we are born now in America – not too long ago, it used to be Mom in an operating room and Dad in a waiting room. But there was a demand from patients for the birthing rooms of today.

"End of life is changing, but it will change faster and it will change better, if the public is engaged in this process as well and demands it."

Could understanding smell lead to odor-detecting robots? That’s what a multi-university research team is hoping to accomplish. Study leader Lucia Jacobs of the University of California, Berkeley explains.

"Our goal is to identify the common algorithm that all these animals are using to find odors. If we can do that, then we can use that to build robotic devices that can find odors. And then that will finally be able to replace dogs and other mammals – we use pigs to find truffles, we use giant Gambian rats to find land mines in Africa. So just providing the science behind that, that’s got to be valuable."

Jacobs and her team, were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to identify the mechanisms behind odor navigation. They will compare the behavioral and cognitive differences of a variety of animals during odor navigation, including humans, dogs, cockroaches, and slugs.

"So what we are hoping to do is to find the secret that we can give to engineers who can then build a robot who could do that."

Could understanding smell lead to odor-detecting robots? That’s what a multi-university research team is hoping to accomplish. Study leader Lucia Jacobs of the University of California, Berkeley explains.

"Our goal is to identify the common algorithm that all these animals are using to find odors. If we can do that, then we can use that to build robotic devices that can find odors. And then that will finally be able to replace dogs and other mammals – we use pigs to find truffles, we use giant Gambian rats to find land mines in Africa. So just providing the science behind that, that’s got to be valuable."

Jacobs and her team, were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to identify the mechanisms behind odor navigation. They will compare the behavioral and cognitive differences of a variety of animals during odor navigation, including humans, dogs, cockroaches, and slugs.

"So what we are hoping to do is to find the secret that we can give to engineers who can then build a robot who could do that."

Could understanding smell lead to odor-detecting robots? That’s what a multi-university research team is hoping to accomplish. Study leader Lucia Jacobs of the University of California, Berkeley explains.

"Our goal is to identify the common algorithm that all these animals are using to find odors. If we can do that, then we can use that to build robotic devices that can find odors. And then that will finally be able to replace dogs and other mammals – we use pigs to find truffles, we use giant Gambian rats to find land mines in Africa. So just providing the science behind that, that’s got to be valuable."

Jacobs and her team, were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to identify the mechanisms behind odor navigation. They will compare the behavioral and cognitive differences of a variety of animals during odor navigation, including humans, dogs, cockroaches, and slugs.

"So what we are hoping to do is to find the secret that we can give to engineers who can then build a robot who could do that."

Overfishing is often cited as having a large negative impact on coral reefs. But until a team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography looked into it, there was no global snapshot of key coral reef fishes and their ecological role in maintaining the balance of coral reef health.

"There was this missing link, you know overfishing of what and what’s the current status of overfishing of these important species that we know have a really important ecological role in maintaining that balance between corals and their seaweed competitors?"

That’s Jennifer Smith, a marine ecologist who led the effort to compile the global data.

"We complied this global data set that allowed us to ask what the current status of coral reef herbivorous or grazing fishes was. We found that in fact, in fished areas these herbivorous fishes were reduced by greater than 50% in comparison to unfished areas or remote islands that don’t have any local human populations."