UC Science Today

Hey there! It’s been another action-packed week, full of interesting research from around the University of California system. First up, did you know our brains take more time to develop than previously thought? Neither did researcher; they thought most of the development that happened after birth was simply fine-tuning. But Neurologist Mercedes Parades of UC San Francisco discovered that our brains are still developing right after birth – with young neurons moving to the frontal lobe of the brain where they become functional.

"And this is something new, both in terms of how long brain development is still ongoing, but also the fact that this is a period right around the time of birth and there is a lot of pathological changes that can happen and the brain is vulnerable."

This new understanding of what’s happening in newborn babies' brains will help scientists get a better sense of what triggers developmental disorders. Next, we go from babies to Baby Boomers. They make up the ‘silver tsunami’, a metaphor used to describe a spike in the aging American population, mostly due to the greying of the Baby Boomer generation. Dr. Dilip Jeste of UC San Diego says there’s some misapprehension about this great grey wave coming towards us. Specifically, that they’re a drag and are just going to bog us down with costs.

"That’s wrong. I strongly believe that intergenerational activities are critical for successful aging because it’s mutually beneficial. If we keep older people happier and engaged and involved in intergenerational activities, they will be healthier. If they’re healthier, the health care cost is going to go down. So, we need to take good care of older people – not out of compassion, but even from the point of view of economics; it saves us money."

And Jeste adds, older people can transfer a lot of wisdom to the younger generation. To hear these and other stories, subscribe to Science Today on iTunes or check out on Facebook. Until next time, I’m Larissa Branin.

Subscribe to Science Today:

iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD

Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday

Stories mentioned in this roundup:

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/brain_development

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/silver_tsunami

If your children have mental health problems, their physical health might suffer, too. But psychiatrist Nicole Bush of the University of California, San Francisco, say this connection is often overlooked because of lack of research and funding in this field.

"A lot of people are less motivated to support and provide funding to improve the mental health of children, a lot of people point to parents as being responsible for caring for that outcome. But when people realize that a child has an immune system problem that maybe affecting their metabolic profile, increasing their risk for obesity, their risk for infectious illness or asthma or other airway health outcomes, they start to be more concerned."

Bush thinks all this may be a result of a psychological trauma or multiple adverse events in a child's life. She is currently analyzing data from her recent study to prove this point.

"It has large societal impact. So, if we can identify harmful biological marks associated with that adversity, people maybe more motivated to invest in interventions for these populations".

The ‘silver tsunami’ is a metaphor often used to describe a spike in the aging American population due to advances in medicine keeping people alive longer, as well as the greying of the Baby Boomer generation. Dr. Dilip Jeste, director of the Center on Healthy Aging at the University of California, San Diego, says that with this great grey wave, there’s also the notion that older people will drain society with cost.

"That’s wrong. To me, old age is the fountain of wisdom; and the older people can contribute to society by transferring their wisdom to the younger generation. And I strongly believe that intergenerational activities are critical for successful aging because it is mutually beneficial. If we keep older people happier and engaged and involved in intergenerational activities, they will be healthier. If they’re healthier, the health care cost is going to go down. So, we need to take good care of older people – not out of compassion, but even from the point of view of economics, it saves us money."

Our brains take more time to develop than was previously thought. Those were the findings of a new study conducted by neurologist Mercedes Paredes of the University of California, San Francisco.

“The old dogma has been that a lot of the development that happened after birth was more related to fine tuning, changes such as white matter development and synaptic connections, the connections between brain cells or neurons.”

But Paredes has found that the brain is still developing – significantly right after birth, with young neurons moving to the frontal lobe of the brain, where they then become functional.

“And that is something new, both in terms of how long brain development is still ongoing, but also the fact that this is period right around the time of birth and there is a lot of pathological changes that can happen and the brain is vulnerable.”

So trying to understand what’s happening in newborn babies’ brains will help scientists get a better sense of what triggers developmental disorders.

Time to catch up on Science Today stories. First up, environmental scientists are starting to use drone technology to monitor how forests are affected by droughts, particularly those that have been affecting the Golden State’s iconic sequoia trees. Molecular biologist Todd Dawson of UC Berkeley says with drones, researchers can get a more refined picture in areas where there has been a lot of tree mortality. That’s because in a matter of minutes, drones can allow researchers to survey canopies of individual trees and entire forests.

"That means we are basically keeping our finger on the pulse of the forest change, which we have never been able to do with any of our other tools before."

Next, if you have some pain relievers in your medicine cabinet, you may want to take a closer look at the back of the bottle. The FDA has been putting bigger warning labels on pain relievers like ibuprofen and other drugs known as NSAIDs because of their known risk to increase heart disease and stroke. Researcher Aldrin Gomes of UC Davis, who found that NSAIDs can cause cardiac cells to die after prolonged use, says he’s particularly interested in educating certain age groups about this.

"Between 45 and 65, your risk of stroke from natural causes increases. And above 65, it increases even further. And when you add NSAIDs to this at these different age groups, it further increases your risk."

So if you’re in this age group, try not to use NSAIDs on a regular basis. And finally, if your mind started to wander during this update, I won’t get offended; that’s because UC Santa Barbara’s Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychological and brain sciences, told us that there’s some cognitive value to daydreaming. He conducted a study looking specifically at creative scientists and creative writers to see when they have innovative ideas.

"What we found is that in both of these groups, about a third of their ideas happened while they’re mind wandering; we also find that the ideas that they have when they’re mind wandering are more likely to be an ‘ah-ha!’ kind of solution. Something where they really were not expecting it and more likely to involve overcoming an impasse."

So if you’re not really tuning in to this right now, let’s hope it’s because you just had an ‘ah-ha!’ moment. That’s all for this week – for more stories about the latest University of California, research, subscribe to Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. Until next week, I’m Larissa Branin.

Subscribe to Science Today:

iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD

Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday

Stories mentioned in this roundup:

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/drones_trees

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/nsaids_age

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/daydreaming_cognition

Immunotherapy is the future of cancer treatment. Wendell Lim, a molecular scientist of the University of California, San Francisco, says he is very optimistic about its success, but the caveat is - the cure comes at a price.

"Currently the therapies use patient's own T cells and modify those. And what's good about that is you won't get an immune reaction against those T cells because they come from you. But that's highly customized and that's part of what makes therapy more expensive."

Researchers are looking for ways to make the therapy more affordable so everyone who needs it could pay for it.

"One of the things that people in the field are working on hard is to develop more off-the-shelf cells – that you might have a cell that comes from either a universal donor, or has been generated from stem cells that is compatible with a certain patient, just the way that an organ would be matched".

Lim hopes more funds to tackle this cost savings will be available through the Moonshot Initiative, a project that Vice President Joseph Biden spearheaded to accelerate cancer research.

Being called a daydreamer, especially as an adult, often has negative connotations. But researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have been studying the value of what they call ‘mind wandering’. Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychological and brain sciences has been looking specifically at creative scientists and creative writers to see when they have creative ideas.

"What we found is that in both of these groups, about a third of their ideas happened while they’re mind wandering. And interestingly, we found although overall they don’t find their ideas that they had while mind wandering any more creative than the ones that they had at work, they’re no less. And in many ways, that’s pretty striking, too. If the idea that you have, you know, while gardening is good as the one that you have at your desk, that tells me something. But we also find that the ideas that they have when they’re mind wandering are more likely to be an ‘Ah-ha!’ kind of solution. Something where they really were not expecting it and more likely to involve overcoming an impasse."

So the next time someone knocks you for being caught in a daydream, let them know – your brain needs this break.

Should doctors pay more attention to pregnant women's mental health? Nicole Bush, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, thinks the medical community shows little appreciation of what future mothers are going through psychologically.

“Currently it is not standard practice for obstetricians or primary care people working with pregnant women to even screen for depression or high levels of stress."

..which also affects their developing offspring and could lead to mental and physical problems after they are born. Children may be at risk of obesity, immune dysfunction and neurological disorders.

"We would have massive public health improvement if we could prioritize screening and understanding the challenges that pregnant women face and providing support during pregnancy and early postpartum period to buffer the effects of stress or provide resources to get their needs met."

The Food and Drug Administration has been putting bigger warning labels on pain relievers like ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS. That’s because of their known risk to increase heart disease and stroke. At the University of California, Davis, researcher Aldrin Gomes has found that when taken for prolonged periods, NSAIDs can cause cardiac cells to die. So, Gomes says part of their effort is to educate certain age groups.

"Between 45 and 65, your risk of stroke from natural causes increases. And above 65, it increases even further. And when you add NSAIDs to this, at these different age groups, it further increases your risk."

Since many people typically start using NSAIDs the most as they age, Gomes says it’s imperative to educate those 45 and older to stop using them on a regular basis. For those listening who may be concerned about previous usage and the damage it may have caused, Gomes offers simple advice.

"We can’t change what we have done, we can only change what we can do."

This is Science Today. As drone technology is getting cheaper, they’re being used in a host of different ways, including environmental science. Todd Dawson, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, is using drones to study how forests get affected by droughts, particularly those that have been affecting the Golden State’s iconic sequoia trees.

"We see a lot of trees dying in California but we don't really understand why certain places are dying more than others. And now we are starting to get, with this drone images, a more refined picture in areas where is a lot of tree mortality".

In a matter of minutes researchers can survey canopies of individual trees and entire forests, as drones fly over and take images with multi-spectral cameras.

"That means we are basically keeping our finger on the pulse of the forest change, which we have never been able to do with any of our other tools before."

Dawson says the need to save the trees is urgent, as the drought killed over 60 million of them in California last year alone.