UC Science Today

Can you expect a colonoscopy performed via CT scan to be as accurate as a conventional colonoscopy? Physician Judy Yee of the University of California, San Francisco says innovative CT colonographies, or CTCs, are becoming a good alternative.

"CT colonography is an imaging test that we would like to use for not only diagnosis of colorectal cancer, but for screening for colorectal cancer. There are many peer-reviewed papers and research that’s been done, including here, comparing the traditional CT colonography method to colonoscopy and have found that they’re pretty much equivalent for the clinically significant polyps. The true 3D, or the virtual holographic version of CT colonography is expected to be as accurate, if not more accurate."

Yee is currently conducting larger studies on the procedure, which has proven to have multiple benefits.

"So that’s another advantage, actually, of the CTC, is that you don’t need sedation at all."

How do you test a new theory on how cephalopods see color? Creatures like octopuses only have one type of light receptor in their eyes, meaning they have black and white vision. But graduate student Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley teamed up with his father, Harvard astrophysicist Christopher Stubbs, to design a computer model simulating how cephalopods might be able to use their strangely shaped pupils to detect color.

"There’ve been a number of studies studying the physical optical properties of cephalopod eyes, and then a really rich history of behavioral experiments on cephalopods. So we used the measured optical properties of cephalopod eyes, and then we were able to complete our computer simulation to be able to look at the refractive properties of cephalopod eyes with real spectra that they might encounter in their natural habitat. And I’d say we sort of show, as a proof of concept, that this could work for those organisms and that it’s consistent with prior behavioral data."

It turns out that contrast was particularly important for picking out colors.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a historic travel alert for pregnant women going to Florida, where over a dozen cases of the Zika virus have been reported. This makes the outbreak in South America now a lot closer to home. At the University of California, San Francisco, researcher Lenore Pereira discovered how the Zika virus can infect isolated placental cells.

"We infected these cells with both the prototype African strain and the Nicaraguan strain from the new epidemics that have been associated with microcephaly."

The first human cases of Zika were reported in Uganda in the 1950s.

"We realized that it was an interesting comparison because the Ugandan strain required more virus to infect placental cells than the Nicaraguan strains. Somehow, cells were more susceptible to the Nicaraguan strains."

But preventing the chain of infection from mother to fetus still remains a challenge.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a historic travel alert for pregnant women going to Florida, where over a dozen cases of the Zika virus have been reported. This makes the outbreak in South America now a lot closer to home. At the University of California, San Francisco, researcher Lenore Pereira discovered how the Zika virus can infect isolated placental cells.

"We infected these cells with both the prototype African strain and the Nicaraguan strain from the new epidemics that have been associated with microcephaly."

The first human cases of Zika were reported in Uganda in the 1950s.

"We realized that it was an interesting comparison because the Ugandan strain required more virus to infect placental cells than the Nicaraguan strains. Somehow, cells were more susceptible to the Nicaraguan strains."

But preventing the chain of infection from mother to fetus still remains a challenge.

It’s been 35 years since the first fetal surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco . And now engineers at the University of California, Berkeley are teaming up with Harrison to develop a fetal surgery glue that’s inspired by mussels – yes, the edible ocean dwellers. UC Berkeley engineer Phillip Messersmith says they’re synthesizing a glue that’s based on the tough adhesive that mussels produce to stick to rocks.

"The idea that we could borrow ideas from the mussel and use them in a synthetic material is something that we embraced. And so if you want to do that, you have to at least have some basic level of understanding of how this glue works in nature."

Mussels secrete a series of protein threads to anchor to a wet surface, so Messersmith and his team have created synthetic polymers that mimic the glue. The hope is that this glue may alleviate current risks of rupturing the protective membrane of the amniotic sac.

"Now we’re embarking on a four-year project for fetal surgery glues."

It’s been 35 years since the first fetal surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco . And now engineers at the University of California, Berkeley are teaming up with Harrison to develop a fetal surgery glue that’s inspired by mussels – yes, the edible ocean dwellers. UC Berkeley engineer Phillip Messersmith says they’re synthesizing a glue that’s based on the tough adhesive that mussels produce to stick to rocks.

"The idea that we could borrow ideas from the mussel and use them in a synthetic material is something that we embraced. And so if you want to do that, you have to at least have some basic level of understanding of how this glue works in nature."

Mussels secrete a series of protein threads to anchor to a wet surface, so Messersmith and his team have created synthetic polymers that mimic the glue. The hope is that this glue may alleviate current risks of rupturing the protective membrane of the amniotic sac.

"Now we’re embarking on a four-year project for fetal surgery glues."

One of the big issues in the field of renewable energy is coming up with better energy storage methods. The goal is to have systems with what’s called ‘high energy density’, so it holds a lot of energy, but can be discharged and charged quickly. To this end, staff scientist Marcus Worsley of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says their team has joined forces with researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz to create the first 3D-printed supercapacitor using an ultra-lightweight graphene aerogel.

"That’s one of the big efforts here is to make some of these holy grail sort of devices. And the expertise that we have here in materials synthesis, as well as 3D printing, and additive manufacturing, we’d like to kind of join those things together, which is why we have this collaboration going on between engineering and physical and life science to really try to take on some of these very big challenges that face us today."

The graphene-based inks used in their 3D printed supercapacitors opens the door to a whole host of novel designs of highly efficient energy storage systems.

Compared to the rest of the body, the brain has higher levels of mineral nutrients like copper, zinc, and iron. This observation led chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley to probe down to the level of the neurons, where he found copper was mediating conversations between cells.

"So we ended up studying the interface between metals and neuroscience for a while, and the thing that we ended up finding was that copper is important for having brain cells communicate with each other normally."

Chang discovered that copper can essentially turn off signals between cells.

"The idea is that when two brain cells talk to each other and store and transfer information, there’s a movement of copper that occurs between the cells. And so if two cells talk to each other, the copper moves to tell the cells that the signal now can be sort of turned off. So you’re almost, like telling them to hang up the telephone."

This was the first study directly observing the communication role of copper in the brain.

Compared to the rest of the body, the brain has higher levels of mineral nutrients like copper, zinc, and iron. This observation led chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley to probe down to the level of the neurons, where he found copper was mediating conversations between cells.

"So we ended up studying the interface between metals and neuroscience for a while, and the thing that we ended up finding was that copper is important for having brain cells communicate with each other normally."

Chang discovered that copper can essentially turn off signals between cells.

"The idea is that when two brain cells talk to each other and store and transfer information, there’s a movement of copper that occurs between the cells. And so if two cells talk to each other, the copper moves to tell the cells that the signal now can be sort of turned off. So you’re almost, like telling them to hang up the telephone."

This was the first study directly observing the communication role of copper in the brain.

One of the big issues in the field of renewable energy is coming up with better energy storage methods. The goal is to have systems with what’s called ‘high energy density’, so it holds a lot of energy, but can be discharged and charged quickly. To this end, staff scientist Marcus Worsley of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says their team has joined forces with researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz to create the first 3D-printed supercapacitor using an ultra-lightweight graphene aerogel.

"That’s one of the big efforts here is to make some of these holy grail sort of devices. And the expertise that we have here in materials synthesis, as well as 3D printing, and additive manufacturing, we’d like to kind of join those things together, which is why we have this collaboration going on between engineering and physical and life science to really try to take on some of these very big challenges that face us today."

The graphene-based inks used in their 3D printed supercapacitors opens the door to a whole host of novel designs of highly efficient energy storage systems.