UC Science Today

It looks like you can thank copper for your body’s ability to burn fat. According to chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley, the metal nutrient acts as what’s called a “brake on a brake,” using a somewhat counterintuitive process to metabolize fat.

"There’s a process that stops normal fat burning, and what we found was that copper stops or blocks what normally blocks fat burning. And so by blocking the block, then you actually allow fat burning to proceed."

Chang found that tissue could not burn fat as well without copper, which you take in normally through your diet.

"It’s mainly found in green leafy vegetables, different sorts of fruit, nuts, mushrooms, and seafood/shellfish. The biochemical mechanisms that we identified in fat tissue turn out to be conserved in other parts of the body. And so it might have some implications for other diseases or normal behavior and function."

Similar interactions with copper are also found in the brain, heart, and pancreas.

It looks like you can thank copper for your body’s ability to burn fat. According to chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley, the metal nutrient acts as what’s called a “brake on a brake,” using a somewhat counterintuitive process to metabolize fat.

"There’s a process that stops normal fat burning, and what we found was that copper stops or blocks what normally blocks fat burning. And so by blocking the block, then you actually allow fat burning to proceed."

Chang found that tissue could not burn fat as well without copper, which you take in normally through your diet.

"It’s mainly found in green leafy vegetables, different sorts of fruit, nuts, mushrooms, and seafood/shellfish. The biochemical mechanisms that we identified in fat tissue turn out to be conserved in other parts of the body. And so it might have some implications for other diseases or normal behavior and function."

Similar interactions with copper are also found in the brain, heart, and pancreas.

Now that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a 3-D bioprint of living blood vessels, they’re moving towards making more tissue-specific vasculature. Bioengineer Monica Moya says she’s particularly interested in the brain.

"So, we’re trying to build the blood-brain barrier, which is the blood vessels in your brain that are responsible for making sure that not just anything gets across, but that’s an interesting field because sometimes you do want things to get across."

For example, you’d want certain drugs to get across that barrier to treat a tumor, but they don’t always make it.

"And that’s actually one of the challenges of people that end up with brain tumors, is that it’s hard to treat and it’s hard to deliver across the blood-brain barrier and then there’s cases where there’s stuff that goes across the blood-brain barrier and you want to prevent it from getting across the barrier. So, having a model that you can test is beneficial."

Moya and her team have successfully 3D printed structures with living cells and biomaterials using ‘bio-inks’, which enabled human capillaries to develop on their own.

Now that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a 3-D bioprint of living blood vessels, they’re moving towards making more tissue-specific vasculature. Bioengineer Monica Moya says she’s particularly interested in the brain.

"So, we’re trying to build the blood-brain barrier, which is the blood vessels in your brain that are responsible for making sure that not just anything gets across, but that’s an interesting field because sometimes you do want things to get across."

For example, you’d want certain drugs to get across that barrier to treat a tumor, but they don’t always make it.

"And that’s actually one of the challenges of people that end up with brain tumors, is that it’s hard to treat and it’s hard to deliver across the blood-brain barrier and then there’s cases where there’s stuff that goes across the blood-brain barrier and you want to prevent it from getting across the barrier. So, having a model that you can test is beneficial."

Moya and her team have successfully 3D printed structures with living cells and biomaterials using ‘bio-inks’, which enabled human capillaries to develop on their own.

This week on Science Today. If you look on the back of a bottle of multivitamins, you might recognize some metal nutrients like zinc and iron. But would you recognize copper as a major contributor to human health? We speak with chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley, who discovered that copper actually helps mice burn fat.

"And so what happens is that if the mice don’t have enough copper in their fat cells, then they can’t undergo this process of fat burning, the act of breaking larger pieces of fat into smaller pieces of fat for energy."

And it turns out that this lack of copper can set the stage for obesity. Our bodies require many nutrients to thrive, but other compounds might be outright harmful. Consider chemotherapy drugs, which can be toxic to the body and cause brutal side effects. That’s why researcher Chelsea Chen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory created a small device called the ChemoFilter. This acts as chemical sponge to absorb the excess drug before it spreads to the rest of the body.

"It is used to capture the chemotherapy drug, that’s past the tumor, before it enters the body’s circulation."

The device can then be removed from the body after treatment. We also chat with bioinformatics scientist Jonathan Allen of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about a new national panel that will study how microbial communities affect human health in “built environments” like an office building or even a hospital.

"How can we apply the current technologies that are being used to study the microbiome in a broad array of research areas and apply them to really advance the field in building design and interactions with people?"

Listen to this and other episodes about the University of California research. Subscribe to UC Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. You can also follow us on Facebook. Thanks for listening and 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/copper_obesity

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/chemo_filter

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/office_microbiome

This week on Science Today. If you look on the back of a bottle of multivitamins, you might recognize some metal nutrients like zinc and iron. But would you recognize copper as a major contributor to human health? We speak with chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley, who discovered that copper actually helps mice burn fat.

"And so what happens is that if the mice don’t have enough copper in their fat cells, then they can’t undergo this process of fat burning, the act of breaking larger pieces of fat into smaller pieces of fat for energy."

And it turns out that this lack of copper can set the stage for obesity. Our bodies require many nutrients to thrive, but other compounds might be outright harmful. Consider chemotherapy drugs, which can be toxic to the body and cause brutal side effects. That’s why researcher Chelsea Chen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory created a small device called the ChemoFilter. This acts as chemical sponge to absorb the excess drug before it spreads to the rest of the body.

"It is used to capture the chemotherapy drug, that’s past the tumor, before it enters the body’s circulation."

The device can then be removed from the body after treatment. We also chat with bioinformatics scientist Jonathan Allen of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about a new national panel that will study how microbial communities affect human health in “built environments” like an office building or even a hospital.

"How can we apply the current technologies that are being used to study the microbiome in a broad array of research areas and apply them to really advance the field in building design and interactions with people?"

Listen to this and other episodes about the University of California research. Subscribe to UC Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. You can also follow us on Facebook. Thanks for listening and 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/copper_obesity

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/chemo_filter

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/office_microbiome

NASA’s Juno space probe has arrived at Jupiter, which will give astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley the opportunity to expand upon her already detailed maps of the giant planet. de Pater’s maps documented Jupiter’s global circulation patterns, or the movement of gases through the atmosphere. This also occurs on Earth, where the circulation of air distributes heat across the planet.

"When you just look at Jupiter, you see clouds, you see brownish and whitish bands. The whitish ones are called zones and the brown ones are called the belts. The ammonia gas will condense out and form clouds. And so above that cloud deck, ammonia is basically dry air. And that dry air will then descend back down into neighboring belt regions. So that’s sort of a circulation pattern of air rising, then condensing out, and dry air sinking down. In a way, global circulations on Jupiter may help understand global circulations on the Earth."

NASA’s Juno space probe has arrived at Jupiter, which will give astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley the opportunity to expand upon her already detailed maps of the giant planet. de Pater’s maps documented Jupiter’s global circulation patterns, or the movement of gases through the atmosphere. This also occurs on Earth, where the circulation of air distributes heat across the planet.

"When you just look at Jupiter, you see clouds, you see brownish and whitish bands. The whitish ones are called zones and the brown ones are called the belts. The ammonia gas will condense out and form clouds. And so above that cloud deck, ammonia is basically dry air. And that dry air will then descend back down into neighboring belt regions. So that’s sort of a circulation pattern of air rising, then condensing out, and dry air sinking down. In a way, global circulations on Jupiter may help understand global circulations on the Earth."

Chemotherapy drugs can have brutal side effects, impacting everything from digestion to the nervous system. But what if these drugs could be localized at the site of a tumor to reduce these harms? This is what researcher Chelsea Chen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is working towards: new drug-capture materials that are essentially chemical sponges. The polymer devices are called ChemoFilters.

"We insert this ChemoFilter through a tiny tube into the body, and the device would be placed right next to the tumor. It is used to capture the chemotherapy drug, and that’s past the tumor, before it enters the body’s circulation. That way it decreases the systemic toxicities."

While the device was conceived with liver cancer in mind, Chen is working on ChemoFilters that can absorb other chemotherapy drugs as well.

"The ChemoFilter will have broad use, but on the other hand, it’s not applicable to all types of cancers."

To be used on humans, the device will require additional testing for federal approval.

Every hour, one person can shed about 37 million microbes into the air. That’s something to consider while spending 8 hours in windowless office buildings, not to mention any time spent on an airplane! Jonathan Allen, a bioinformatics scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is part of a new, national panel that will study how microbial communities of organisms (or microbiomes) can affect human health in 'built environments'.

"How can we apply the current technologies that are being used to study the microbiome in a broad array of research areas and apply them, to really advance the field in building design and interactions with people? What are the open challenges, where do the research efforts need to go to actually develop the practical information that’s going to really impact building design?"

The panel plans to assess the current base of knowledge in this field and identify research gaps to improve future building design. They will also look into other built environments like cars, subways and hospitals, where the aim will be to limit the spread of infectious disease