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New technology developed at UC Berkeley is using wireless signals to provide real-time, non-invasive diagnoses of brain swelling or bleeding. The device could potentially become a cost-effective tool for medical diagnostics and to triage injuries in areas where access to medical care, especially medical imaging, is limited.
Health & medicine archive
Berkeley SHIP 2013-14 details announced
May 16, 2013: Chancellor Birgeneau recently announced that Berkeley would leave UC SHIP and return to a campus-based student insurance plan for the next academic year. Details of the campus plan, to be implemented in August, can be found in this post from University Health Services.
Racial minorities live on the front lines of heat risk, study finds
May 14, 2013: Some racial groups are more likely to bear the brunt of extreme heat waves because of where they live, finds a new UC Berkeley study. The study highlight racial disparities at a time when the frequency and intensity of extreme heat waves is expected to increase with climate change.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute names three new campus investigators
May 9, 2013: Three young faculty members – Nicole King, Michael Rape & Russell Vance – have won the most sought-after appointment for a researcher at any American university: as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. The institute will pay their salaries in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and provide research funding, freeing them from constant application for federal research grants.
Hit a 95 mph baseball? Scientists pinpoint how we see it coming
May 8, 2013: How does San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval swat a 95 mph fastball, or tennis icon Venus Williams see the oncoming ball, let alone return her sister Serena’s 120 mph serves? For the first time, vision scientists at UC Berkeley have pinpointed how the brain tracks fast-moving objects.
Chancellor announces return to Berkeley-operated student health plan
May 2, 2013: In response to student urging, the campus will withdraw from the UC-wide student health-insurance plan (UC SHIP) and return to a UC Berkeley-operated plan starting in mid August. Chancellor Birgeneau announced the decision in a May 2 letter to the campus community.
Poison lips? Troubling levels of toxic metals found in cosmetics
May 2, 2013: UC Berkeley researchers found lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals in a sample of 32 different lipsticks and lip glosses commonly found in drugstores and department stores. Some of the metals were detected at levels that could raise potential health concerns.
Malaria milestone ‘took a village’ 
April 25, 2013: On April 25, World Malaria Day, the non-profit Zagaya released a video Illustrating why, in the words of UC Berkeley synthetic biologist Jay Keasling, “it took a village” to create an accessible treatment for malaria that will be essential to eradicating the disease.
‘Fitness for All’ is an exercise in inclusion
April 24, 2013: Campus staffer and Cal grad Matt Grigorieff is the driving force behind Fitness for All, a new program that aims to provide health and fitness options to UC Berkeley students with disabilities. Among the first offerings is a class on goalball, a court sport that puts blind and sighted players on a level playing field.
Ten Berkeley faculty named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 24, 2013: Ten Berkeley professors have been named members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious 233-year-old honorary society of national leaders from academia, business, public affairs and the humanities.
Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party
April 21, 2013: A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? UC Berkeley scientists have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a person, animal or thing.
Cal Day launched graduating senior’s Berkeley experience
April 19, 2013: Senior Ahn-Thi Le’s UC Berkeley journey began with Cal Day, when she fell in love with the campus. Now, after following a path that took her to India to work with rural artisans and to a place in the CellScope initiative improving health care in Vietnam, Le is about to graduate.
Jay Keasling wins George Washington Carver award for biotech innovation
April 18, 2013: Jay Keasling, a professor of biochemical engineering, associate laboratory director at Berkeley Lab, CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute and director of the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center, is the recipient of the 2013 George Washington Carver Award for innovation in industrial biotechnology. The award is presented annually by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
Researchers find out why some stress is good for you
April 16, 2013: Chronic stress is known to cause major health problems, yet acute stress is thought to improve people’s performance and health. A new study by UC Berkeley professor Daniela Kaufer shows why that is. Stress generates new nerve cells in the brain that, two weeks later, help people learn better.
Campus’s ‘socially responsible licensing’ receives Patents for Humanity award
April 11, 2013: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office honored UC Berkeley’s technology transfer office for its socially responsible licensing to provide low-cost treatments and technologies to people in developing countries, highlighted by the successful licensing of a discovery leading to a newly launched yeast-derived malaria drug. Other projects are nutritionally fortified sorghum & disease-resistant crops.
Launch of antimalarial drug a triumph for UC Berkeley, synthetic biology
April 11, 2013: The best therapy today for malaria is a drug combination that includes a derivative of artemisinin, now solely available from plants. On April 11, Sanofi began production of the first semi-synthetic version of artemisinin, derived from yeast developed by biotech company Amyris based on discoveries in the laboratory of Jay Keasling at UC Berkeley.
Gold Folder helps faculty and staff ID students in distress
April 10, 2013: Faculty and staff at Berkeley now have a quick-reference guide to help them identify signs of an emotionally distressed student and take steps to access appropriate resources. In-person trainings on the new campus resource are set for two dates in April.
Bakar Fellows Program: Mining the proteome
April 3, 2013: “We need to learn not only what is encoded in the genome – the blueprint of life – but how that actually translates into protein function in health and disease,” says Amy Herr, a Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering. Her research is supported by the campus’s Bakar Fellows Program, which helps early-career faculty pursue innovative research with commercial promise.
Campus poised to join Obama’s BRAIN initiative
April 2, 2013: President Barack Obama has announced a major national initiative to understand how the brain works and how it goes awry. Neuroscientist John Ngai, chemist Paul Alivisatos and chemical engineer Jay Keasling were on hand at the White House to lend support to the so-called BRAIN initiative, which Ngai termed “our moon project.”
Making living matter programmable
March 26, 2013: A dozen of the pioneers of synthetic biology gathered on campus March 25 to discuss the revolutionary potential of “programming life,” which some compared to the digital revolution. The event was co-hosted by SynBERC and Discover magazine.
Bakar Fellows explore brain-machine interface
March 26, 2013: Neuroengineer Jose Carmena and bioengineer Michel Maharbiz are working to develop a brain-machine interface, an emerging technology for retraining the brain to operate a prosthetic device such as an artificial limb. They are supported by the campus’s Bakar Fellows Program, which helps early-career faculty pursue innovative research with commercial promise. The program is currently accepting applications for 2013/14.
Computer simulations reveal clues to cell interaction
March 21, 2013: Scientists have developed a computer model of integrin, a protein that helps cells interact with their surroundings. The virtual integrin snippet is about the same length and behaves in similar ways to its biological counterpart. The result is a new way to explore how the protein connects a cell’s inner and outer environments.
FDA urged to curb caffeine in energy drinks
March 19, 2013: Two UC Berkeley experts are among 18 signatories to a letter questioning the safety of highly caffeinated energy drinks. The letter, sent today (Tuesday, March 19) to the FDA, urges regulatory action since the drinks have not been proven safe, particularly for teens and children.
Attention high schoolers: March 23 talk on “survival of the kindest”
March 19, 2013: UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner is the next speaker (Sat., Mar. 23, 10 a.m.) in the Nano-High series of talks sponsored by Berkeley Lab. Any high school student or teacher can sign up online and drop in to hear about cutting-edge scientific issues of the day. Keltner’s talk is titled “The Compassionate Instinct: A Darwinian Tale of Survival of the Kindest.”
After-school soccer gets inner-city kids moving
March 1, 2013: A UC Berkeley study evaluating a national after-school soccer program in large urban school districts found that they successfully got kids moving. The study authors noted that low-income and minority kids are disproportionately affected by a lack of physical activity and child obesity, so working soccer into after-school programs could be a promising way of targeting those populations.
Physics Nobelist and biotech pioneer Donald Glaser dies at 86
March 1, 2013: Donald Glaser, a Nobel-prize winning physicist who reinvented himself as a biotech pioneer and later dove into the field of neurobiology, died in his sleep Thursday morning, Feb. 28, at his home in Berkeley. Glaser, a professor emeritus of physics and of molecular and cell biology, was 86.
Research News Briefs
February 28, 2013: Research News Briefs: Economic paper says social pressure affects women more than men when it comes to altruism / Neighborhoods teeming with liquor stores linked to big jump in binge drinking
Looking for a preschool? What’s right for your child? 
February 28, 2013: It’s the time of year when many parents of young children are looking at preschools. In a podcast from the Greater Good Science Center, Berkeley sociologist Christine Carter and R.N. Rona Renner discuss preschool philosophies, research insights on academic vs. play-based programs, and how to choose what’s right for your child.
How good are generic drugs?
February 26, 2013: Recently, many blockbuster prescription medications have become available as generics, and more brands will soon join the list — thus trimming billions from healthcare costs and allowing more people to afford the medication they need. While the FDA says generics are as effective and safe as the original products, some believe that cheaper can’t be better. Berkeley Wellness reviews the evidence.
Policy experts, health care leaders offer landmark roadmap for better health care at lower cost
February 26, 2013: An unprecedented, year-long collaborative effort involving policy experts from UC Berkeley, CEOs of major health insurers and health care delivery systems, and leaders from California’s public sector has produced a detailed roadmap that would transform the state’s health care system and improve care and outcomes while saving billions of dollars in the process.
