UC Science Today

A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley are bioinspired – that is, they’re finding inspiration from nature and biology to create synthetic materials for a range of problems. Bioengineer Phil Messersmith says while there’s particular interest in the medical field, it’s not exclusive. In fact, their work creating super-strong mollusk-inspired adhesives for fetal surgery, is also of interest to a group of battery technology scientists at the Berkeley Lab.

"For lithium ion batteries, they need better binders for the particles – there’s huge swelling/de-swelling that happens when you charge and discharge one of these batteries and you have to have effective adhesion between the binder and these particles, otherwise they form cracks and the electrical pathway is interrupted. So, some of the adhesion from our mussel research can be implemented into this battery technology, so we’re doing that as well."

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men and women combined in the United States. And yet, only about 50 percent of individuals who are recommended to get screened, do so. Dr. Judy Yee of the University of California, San Francisco is a pioneer of the use of CT colonography, or virtual colonoscopy. This less-invasive technology recently scored high marks.

"On June 15, the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force released their final recommendation for colorectal screening and they included CT colonography under their A rating. That means that every insurance company in this country will have to cover CT colonography for screening. And this is great news for patients. I think it will really provide improved access to patients who have been hesitant to come in for colorectal cancer screening because they don't want an invasive technique."

This will hopefully lead to Medicare reimubursement, too.

It’s been twenty years since two University of California, San Francisco physicians proposed a new kind of a doctor – the hospitalist. This is basically a generalist who specializes in inpatient care. Dr. Steve Pantilat was hired as a UCSF hospitalist in 1996, and three years later founded one of the nation’s first hospital-based palliative care programs at UCSF. We asked what motivated him.

"I had this longstanding interest in ethics and what I liked about palliative care is that it took the ethics and really brought it to the care of patients in a very real way."

Pantilat explains that physicians caring for the very sick were often not trained to talk to their patients and their families about what decisions they wanted to make.

"In palliative care, what we say is “let’s help you do that”; we have expertise in this. I didn’t even know that it was called palliative care, but then I realized it actually has a name, what I liked to do and ever since then, that’s been the focus of my career."

It’s been twenty years since two University of California, San Francisco physicians proposed a new kind of a doctor – the hospitalist. This is basically a generalist who specializes in inpatient care. Dr. Steve Pantilat was hired as a UCSF hospitalist in 1996, and three years later founded one of the nation’s first hospital-based palliative care programs at UCSF. We asked what motivated him.

"I had this longstanding interest in ethics and what I liked about palliative care is that it took the ethics and really brought it to the care of patients in a very real way."

Pantilat explains that physicians caring for the very sick were often not trained to talk to their patients and their families about what decisions they wanted to make.

"In palliative care, what we say is “let’s help you do that”; we have expertise in this. I didn’t even know that it was called palliative care, but then I realized it actually has a name, what I liked to do and ever since then, that’s been the focus of my career."

Astrophysicist Richard Klein of the University of California, Berkeley has spent years developing code for a massive simulation that covers 700,000 years of star formation. The simulation was so large that it had to be run on NASA’s most powerful supercomputer. And now, Klein plans to create an even bigger program.

"To develop a comprehensive theory of star formation, which is our ultimate goal, you have to start at large scales. And so over the last several years, we’ve been extending the calculations to start at much larger gas clouds within the galaxy, and then evolving those simulations to the gravitational collapse of these huge clouds, all the way down to the point where they actually can form stars."

The major theme of the last few years has been to bring in more relevant physics in larger scale simulations. The hope is that their expansion will more accurately reflect the initial conditions of star formation.

Astrophysicist Richard Klein of the University of California, Berkeley has spent years developing code for a massive simulation that covers 700,000 years of star formation. The simulation was so large that it had to be run on NASA’s most powerful supercomputer. And now, Klein plans to create an even bigger program.

"To develop a comprehensive theory of star formation, which is our ultimate goal, you have to start at large scales. And so over the last several years, we’ve been extending the calculations to start at much larger gas clouds within the galaxy, and then evolving those simulations to the gravitational collapse of these huge clouds, all the way down to the point where they actually can form stars."

The major theme of the last few years has been to bring in more relevant physics in larger scale simulations. The hope is that their expansion will more accurately reflect the initial conditions of star formation.

Doctors at the University of California, San Francisco have observed that colonoscopies performed with CT scans and viewed as holograms are just as accurate as the traditional exam. But can this virtual holography be used for other purposes? Physician Judy Yee says the technology could be applied to other parts of the body, from the brain to the liver. It could also help surgeons prepare for procedures.

"Pre-surgical planning is going to be, I think, a large part of this. It will allow surgeons to get a sense of the size of lesions, the proximity to key structures like vessels and to potentially practice the approach to a tumor, for example. What’s the best and safest approach to a tumor? And that can be performed really, any part of the body."

The goal is to make the images as easy to interpret and precise as possible.

"This is extremely new. We are in the validation phase now for looking at accuracy, and after that we should see increasing use of the product."

Doctors at the University of California, San Francisco have observed that colonoscopies performed with CT scans and viewed as holograms are just as accurate as the traditional exam. But can this virtual holography be used for other purposes? Physician Judy Yee says the technology could be applied to other parts of the body, from the brain to the liver. It could also help surgeons prepare for procedures.

"Pre-surgical planning is going to be, I think, a large part of this. It will allow surgeons to get a sense of the size of lesions, the proximity to key structures like vessels and to potentially practice the approach to a tumor, for example. What’s the best and safest approach to a tumor? And that can be performed really, any part of the body."

The goal is to make the images as easy to interpret and precise as possible.

"This is extremely new. We are in the validation phase now for looking at accuracy, and after that we should see increasing use of the product."

This week on Science Today. Did you know that nearly 40 percent of worldwide agricultural crops are destroyed by insects – in particular, fruit flies such as the spotted-wing Drosophila. These pests feed on ripening fruits, laying eggs inside berries and causing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural damage. According to UC Riverside entomologist Anandasankar Ray, most flies go for rotting fruits that have fallen off plants.

"But these flies will go after the ripening fruit. So this is of particular concern because when you have fruit or produce that is close to harvest, you really do not want to spray toxic chemicals on them."

Ray describes a safe repellent they’ve developed, which successfully warded off hungry flies in the lab. Also in the lab, this one at UC Berkeley, we talk to engineer Chelsea Chen who is testing how their ChemoFilter works in a natural environment. This is a polymer membrane that can absorb excess, circulating chemotherapy drugs in one’s body after treatment.

"We are trying to improve the design to mimic body environment more closely instead of just doing a simple benchtop experiment. So, we’re working on both a more real environment in vitro experiment and also the next step is the in vivo."

And at UC San Francisco, doctors are seeing things in a whole new way – literally. Dr. Judy Yee describes how they’re using virtual holography to perform colonoscopies and how this technology may also be applied to other parts of the body and help surgeons prepare for procedures.

"It will allow surgeons to get a sense of the size of lesions, the proximity to key structures like vessels and to potentially practice the approach to a tumor, for example."

There’s just so much going on at the University of California – keep on top of all the latest discoveries and breakthroughs. Subscribe to UC Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. You can also follow us on Soundcloud or Facebook. Be well, and until next time I’m Larissa Branin.

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Stories mentioned in this roundup:

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/safe_replellents

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/chemofilter_testing

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/holography_medical

Did you know that researchers are developing new materials that can soak up excess drugs inside your body? Engineer Chelsea Chen of the University of California, Berkeley is building a polymer membrane that can absorb circulating chemotherapy drugs after treatment. The membrane is known as a ChemoFilter, and how it absorbs drugs depends on the materials inside it.

"We study the structure-property relationship of the polymer membranes. So basically by establishing the structure-property relationships, we can predict what kind of structure would work best, so we could design the optimal performance membrane. That’s our goal."

When it comes to testing the filter, Chen is trying to create an environment similar to what the membrane would be exposed to within the body.

"We are trying to improve the design to mimic body environment more closely, instead of just doing a simple benchtop experiment. So we’re working on both a more real environment in vitro experiment and also the next step is the in vivo."