Science & Technology

UC Davis researcher Gary Leisorowitz was recently awarded $900,000 to formulate a diagnostic test for ovarian cancer. The test aims to detect ovarian cancer at its preliminary stages. The grant was given by the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Leisorowitz, along with fellow researcher Professor Carlito Lebrilla, has been working mostly with glycomics analysis to aid in cancer diagnosis. The glycomics analysis is used as a biomarker that would compare changes in this serum in women who have ovarian cancer versus healthy women.

Study suggests mice produce egg cells after birth

Shanghai scientists say they have detected germ-line cells that produce unfertilized eggs, or oocytes, in both young and old mice.

The scientists worked only with mice, but because all mammals are physiologically similar, any proof that the rodents could produce eggs after birth would encourage research to see if humans could, too.

Researchers at UC Davis and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have captured the first video footage of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spreading between T cells through contact interfaces called virological synapses.

The groundbreaking study, which was published in the Mar. 27 issue of Science, provides evidence backing virological synapses (VS) as viable targets for developing new drugs to combat HIV infection.

A recent study led by UC Davis researchers helps shed light on the puzzling and rarely researched question as to why certain animals - like skunks and zebras - have evolved to maintain contrasting color patterns.

"Why are skunks so successful?" asked Jennifer Hunter, a recent Ph.D. graduate who conducted the study for her dissertation. "It's because they have this amazing evolutionary tool that fends off predators."

UC Davis professor Art Shapiro has spent most of his life studying butterflies. The Philadelphia native first discovered his love of nature and natural history as a young child, often taking long walks in the woods and New Jersey Pine Barrens.

After obtaining his bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, he earned his Ph.D. in entomology from Cornell University in 1970.

Study finds boys trouble from the beginning

It turns out there may be some truth to the old wives' tale that male babies cause more difficult pregnancies.

Researchers at the Tel Aviv University conducted a study of 66,000 births and found that pregnancies involving males had a higher rate of complication. They found an increased instance of problems like premature birth or Caesarian delivery.

Maybe the old adage "don't worry, be happy" has some truth in it after all.

According to a study conducted by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Washington, although children between the ages of five and seven all understand the connection that negative emotions can cause poorer school performance, only the 7-year-olds realized the link between positive emotions and better school performance.

Today

Opsin Expression in Fishes: Photoreceptor Plasticity and its Ecological Relevance

Inigo Novales Flamarique (Simon Fraser University, British Columbia)

1:10 to 2 p.m., 1022 Life Sciences

Sponsored by neurobiology, physiology and behavior, College of Biological Sciences

Topic to be announced (land, air and water resources)

Pasquale Steduto (Food and Agriculture Organization)

4:10 to 5:30 p.m., 3001 Plant and Environmental Sciences

Sponsored by land, air and water resources, Environmental Science and Policy

Insomnia may affect "hunger hormones"

UCLA researchers have uncovered that one of the two hormones that is primarily responsible for telling the body when it is hungry or when it is full is disrupted by chronic insomnia.

This is the first study looking into the elevated nocturnal levels of the two hormones - ghrelin and leptin - in patients diagnosed with primary insomnia.

Lake Tahoe's clarity is currently not declining and its outlook is positive, suggests data from a collaborative effort of UC Davis researchers, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

"In terms of clarity, the outlook is hopeful," said Dennis Oliver, public affairs director of the TRPA. "There's been quite a lot of progress made to undo the damage that was seen here in the 1950s."

UC Davis professor of wildlife, fish and conservation biology Tim Caro spends his time off in Africa - in a remote corner of Tanzania near the Katavi National Park, to be exact.

In cooperation with federal, state and county agencies, UC Davis has taken drastic action to safeguard the university's ongoing rice research and California's rice industry by ridding its greenhouses of a new and destructive pest - the panicle rice mite.

A recent study by UC Davis researchers showed that declining populations of sea otters could be attributed to pathogens in their diet.

Such pathogens are also influencing their behavior on the sea floor, slowing their biologically inclined recovery times - the time it takes an otter to come up to shore.

Tests could determine source of 'mystery tumors'

New tests may hold the key to identifying and treating unidentified cancerous tumors.

UC Davis' very own graduate student in International Agriculture Development Margaret Lloyd might someday be President Barack Obama's personal White House Farmer.