UC Science Today

Children with a condition called Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD, struggle with how to process stimulation – and this includes a whole host of symptoms such as hypersensitivity to auditory and tactile sensations, poor fine motor skills and easy distractibility. So there’s a lot of misunderstanding about SPD and clinicians have even debated whether it constitutes its own disorder.

"We need more research, we need a lot more awareness and education in our community so that these kids get the help that they need without it being such a struggle, both for the kids and their parents."

That’s child neurologist Elysa Marco of the University of California, San Francisco. She’s part of a team of researchers who have found that there are measurable brain-based differences in affected children.

"I’m hoping that some of our earlier work is helping people to grasp. So I’m hoping in another couple years, there will be other labs who have replicated the work that we’ve done – we’ll be a bit more clear on both the structure and the function in our kids with sensory processing differences."

Children with a condition called Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD, struggle with how to process stimulation – and this includes a whole host of symptoms such as hypersensitivity to auditory and tactile sensations, poor fine motor skills and easy distractibility. So there’s a lot of misunderstanding about SPD and clinicians have even debated whether it constitutes its own disorder.

"We need more research, we need a lot more awareness and education in our community so that these kids get the help that they need without it being such a struggle, both for the kids and their parents."

That’s child neurologist Elysa Marco of the University of California, San Francisco. She’s part of a team of researchers who have found that there are measurable brain-based differences in affected children.

"I’m hoping that some of our earlier work is helping people to grasp. So I’m hoping in another couple years, there will be other labs who have replicated the work that we’ve done – we’ll be a bit more clear on both the structure and the function in our kids with sensory processing differences."

Children with a condition called Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD, struggle with how to process stimulation – and this includes a whole host of symptoms such as hypersensitivity to auditory and tactile sensations, poor fine motor skills and easy distractibility. So there’s a lot of misunderstanding about SPD and clinicians have even debated whether it constitutes its own disorder.

"We need more research, we need a lot more awareness and education in our community so that these kids get the help that they need without it being such a struggle, both for the kids and their parents."

That’s child neurologist Elysa Marco of the University of California, San Francisco. She’s part of a team of researchers who have found that there are measurable brain-based differences in affected children.

"I’m hoping that some of our earlier work is helping people to grasp. So I’m hoping in another couple years, there will be other labs who have replicated the work that we’ve done – we’ll be a bit more clear on both the structure and the function in our kids with sensory processing differences."

New funding is boosting efforts to develop an artificial kidney. The Kidney Project has been identified as a campus priority by the University of California, San Francisco because of its potential to develop a breakthrough therapy that would make a worldwide health impact. Bioengineer Shuvo Roy is leading the Kidney Project.

"We been working on this over the last ten years or so, to test that the individual technology components and we’re at the state where we feel that we can now bring this into a unit that can be scaled up ultimately for human use. When we are successful, our device will provide therapy 24/7 to allow the patient to be mobile. They don’t have to be tethered to a machine. Third, you’ll also get many of the benefits of a kidney, so you do not have to feel as bad as many people on dialysis do."

The goal is to have the artificial kidney in clinical trial by 2017.

**UPDATE: The National Institutes of Health has just provided more funding to this project. http://abc7news.com/health/artificial-kidney-could-free-thousands-from-dialysis/1231408/

New funding is boosting efforts to develop an artificial kidney. The Kidney Project has been identified as a campus priority by the University of California, San Francisco because of its potential to develop a breakthrough therapy that would make a worldwide health impact. Bioengineer Shuvo Roy is leading the Kidney Project.

"We been working on this over the last ten years or so, to test that the individual technology components and we’re at the state where we feel that we can now bring this into a unit that can be scaled up ultimately for human use. When we are successful, our device will provide therapy 24/7 to allow the patient to be mobile. They don’t have to be tethered to a machine. Third, you’ll also get many of the benefits of a kidney, so you do not have to feel as bad as many people on dialysis do."

The goal is to have the artificial kidney in clinical trial by 2017.

**UPDATE: The National Institutes of Health has just provided more funding to this project. http://abc7news.com/health/artificial-kidney-could-free-thousands-from-dialysis/1231408/

New funding is boosting efforts to develop an artificial kidney. The Kidney Project has been identified as a campus priority by the University of California, San Francisco because of its potential to develop a breakthrough therapy that would make a worldwide health impact. Bioengineer Shuvo Roy is leading the Kidney Project.

"We been working on this over the last ten years or so, to test that the individual technology components and we’re at the state where we feel that we can now bring this into a unit that can be scaled up ultimately for human use. When we are successful, our device will provide therapy 24/7 to allow the patient to be mobile. They don’t have to be tethered to a machine. Third, you’ll also get many of the benefits of a kidney, so you do not have to feel as bad as many people on dialysis do."

The goal is to have the artificial kidney in clinical trial by 2017.

**UPDATE: The National Institutes of Health has just provided more funding to this project. http://abc7news.com/health/artificial-kidney-could-free-thousands-from-dialysis/1231408/

Could liquid biopsies for cancer be the end of invasive needle biopsies? This is Science Today. Researcher John Witte of the University of California San Francisco says this might become a reality. By detecting tumor cells or mutated DNA circulating in the blood stream, liquid biopsies would indicate the presence, type, and possibly even the location of the cancer. The basis is similar to prenatal tests, which screen for genetic disorders by examining fetal DNA in a mother’s blood.

"So the hope would be for kind of screening, you’d be able to find that someone has a cancer based on the tumor DNA that’s picked up in their liquid biopsy, in their blood, or in their urine."

Liquid biopsies could also be used for cancer patients who are having a recurrence. There’s still more work to be done, but so far, Witte says these tests are promising.

"We’re able to pick up tumor in blood. There’s no question about that. The sensitivity, and the specificity, and how valuable it will really be, is the wide open question."

In the last two decades, astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has explored the uncharted universe via space mapping. Using special imaging cameras, his team is creating the largest possible map of the sky to study a mysterious force called dark energy.

"I like to call myself one of the world leading experts on dark energy, which is – it’s easy to be because we know so little about it. We’re not just mapping dark energy directly, but we’re really just mapping its effects on the size of the universe."

Einstein’s theory of gravity suggests the universe’s expansion should gradually decelerate. But it seems that dark energy is beating out dark matter, a particle believed to slow this expansion. Schlegel’s team will use their map for the DESI project, or Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.

"And what DESI will be doing is it will be taking these two-dimensional maps of the sky and then turning that into a three-dimensional map."

In the last two decades, astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has explored the uncharted universe via space mapping. Using special imaging cameras, his team is creating the largest possible map of the sky to study a mysterious force called dark energy.

"I like to call myself one of the world leading experts on dark energy, which is – it’s easy to be because we know so little about it. We’re not just mapping dark energy directly, but we’re really just mapping its effects on the size of the universe."

Einstein’s theory of gravity suggests the universe’s expansion should gradually decelerate. But it seems that dark energy is beating out dark matter, a particle believed to slow this expansion. Schlegel’s team will use their map for the DESI project, or Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.

"And what DESI will be doing is it will be taking these two-dimensional maps of the sky and then turning that into a three-dimensional map."

Could liquid biopsies for cancer be the end of invasive needle biopsies? This is Science Today. Researcher John Witte of the University of California San Francisco says this might become a reality. By detecting tumor cells or mutated DNA circulating in the blood stream, liquid biopsies would indicate the presence, type, and possibly even the location of the cancer. The basis is similar to prenatal tests, which screen for genetic disorders by examining fetal DNA in a mother’s blood.

"So the hope would be for kind of screening, you’d be able to find that someone has a cancer based on the tumor DNA that’s picked up in their liquid biopsy, in their blood, or in their urine."

Liquid biopsies could also be used for cancer patients who are having a recurrence. There’s still more work to be done, but so far, Witte says these tests are promising.

"We’re able to pick up tumor in blood. There’s no question about that. The sensitivity, and the specificity, and how valuable it will really be, is the wide open question."