UC Davis has opened a new center for stem-cell research, which facilitators believe will be the hub of regenerative cures in California over the next several years.

The UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures opened at its location last month in Sacramento. The institute primarily focuses on clinical and

research methods to devise cures for stem-cell related diseases.

The state’s stem cell agency – the California Institute for Regenerative

Medicine – provided $20 million in key funding for the initial phase of this project, which costs approximately $62 million. The new facility, when it is fully completed over the coming years, is envisioned to be a $100 million research center for the university’s regenerative medicine program, said Jan Nolta[cq], director of UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures.

Numerous institutions will use the center for research, including Stanford, UC Merced, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, the Buck Institute and Sacramento State University.

The building itself is a 6,000 square-foot Good Manufacturing Practice facility. This is a highly sophisticated and state-of-the-art suite that will enable scientists to safely prepare and manufacture cellular and gene therapies for use in clinical trials.

“Our GMP facility will be the largest academic research lab in

northern California,” Nolta said.

The location of the center on the Sacramento campus is helpful due to

its proximity to numerous centers of health improvement, including a nationally designated cancer center, a renowned neurodevelopmental institute, state-of-the-art imaging and biophotonics programs and the UC Davis Medical Center.

In the weeks following the opening of the center, researchers have been moving in their equipment, preparing to focus their research on several different diseases.

“We will be launching several clinical trials using adult stem cells to explore potential treatments for Huntington’s disease, retinal occlusion, or vision impairment, and peripheral vascular disease,” said Nolta.

Among the various researchers, there are 15 specifically designated teams, each with their own expertise, from liver and kidney diseases to

neurodegenerative diseases.

Currently a multitude of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and several undergraduate students are moving into the center, and administrators hope to house more researchers in the coming months.

Researchers are hoping to generate cures for diseases that are currently at the forefront of health services.

“This new building is exciting not only for UC Davis but for the California

Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the entire state of California,” said

Robert Klein[cq], chair of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Governing Board. “Proposition 71’s initial ‘push’ for the construction of new research facilities, like the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures, will now generate a long-term funding ‘pull’ as scientists here strive to obtain supplemental funds from other sources.”

SADAF MOGHIMI can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Slug: 100331_sc_SS

Headline: Science Scene

Women underrepresented in science and math, study says.

A report by the American Association of University Women found that despite gains, women still face obstacles to success in science and math.

Entitled “Why so few?” and supported by the National Science Foundation, the report looked at decades of research seeking ways to bring more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The report found the gender gap is quickly rescinding in one place – the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented. Thirty years ago, sixth and seventh grade boys who scored more than 700 on the math portion of the SAT outnumbered girls 13 to one – a ratio that has since shrunken to three to one.

Source: nytimes.com

EPA postpones requirement of pollution permits

Power plants and industrial sites will not be mandated to acquire federal pollution permits before next January, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday.

The announcement confirms a statement by the EPA last month that the regulation of climate-altering gases would be phased in over several years, beginning with the largest sources.

President Obama has repeatedly said he would prefer that Congress combat climate change with comprehensive energy legislation.

Source: nytimes.com

Cork makes no impact on flavor of wine

Whether your pinot noir was corked with natural cork or a screw cap, it will taste the same, according to a study by the American Chemical Society.

The study examined the common belief that natural cork was the only material that would regulate the amount of oxygen allowed into the wine. The amount of oxygen in wine acts on other compounds, which eventually affects the flavor of the wine.

Researchers investigated 150 bottles of 2006 vintage pinot noir and chardonnay with natural cork, synthetic cork and three screw caps, each with a different lining. They then performed a chemical profile and dissolved oxygen content of the wine under each type of seal. In addition, volunteers rated the flavor and aroma of each wine.

The study found that Seran-tin[cq] caps let in the least amount of oxygen, and did not – contrary to popular belief – taint the taste of the wine with unreacted sulfur compounds.

Source: Science News

– Compiled by Mike Dorsey and Lauren Steussy

Slug: 100331_sc_Plants

Notes: There are [CQ]s in this article! Watch out!

Headline: New haploid breeding methods for plants discovered

Layercake: UC Davis researchers stumble upon procedure accidentally

By MEGAN MURPHY

Aggie News Writer

A discovery made by sheer chance may bring major changes to the future of plant reproduction.

Two UC Davis researchers accidentally uncovered a method for breeding plants that carry genes from only one parent. The method could greatly accelerate the time-consuming process of producing plants with desirable traits, such as pest resistance and drought tolerance.

Simon Chan[cq], assistant professor of plant biology at UC Davis and one of the authors of the paper outlining the technique, spoke of the merits of producing haploid plants [cq]. These plants contain the genes of only one parent, as opposed to diploid organisms, which possess genes from both parents and are the natural reproduction forms of plants and animals.

“Haploid breeding saves a huge amount of time,” Chan said in an e-mail interview. “Breeders can make a new true breeding variety in two generations instead of eight to 10.”

Haploid breeding is currently an expensive, complex process used on only a few select plant breeds. The newly discovered method does not require culture tissue which will significantly lower costs. Researchers expect this method to work on any plant breed.

“Some valuable species such as tomato and soybean completely lack haploid production, and we are trying to create methods for these crops,” Chan said.

Chan and his colleague, postdoctoral scholar Ravi Maruthachalam[cq], stumbled upon the method while studying CENH3, an essential protein, in the plant species Arabidopsis thaliana [cq]. They prepared an altered version of CENH3 marked with a fluorescent protein, and then bred this plant with a regular Arabidopsis.

Instead of producing the expected offspring with one mutant gene from the mother and one normal gene from the father, the plants contained only the normal gene. This occurred due to genome elimination, a process which can eliminate half of a plant’s genes when two different but related plants are bred.

Chan and Maruthachalam then stimulated these offspring to double their chromosomes, enabling them to reproduce. Though this new method is unique to the CENH3 protein, Chan hopes to achieve the same effect with other proteins.

In a press release, Chan described the breakthrough as a “game changer” for his laboratory, describing it as “opening up new research ideas, funding sources and recognition.”

Chan hopes to improve the frequency of haploid production, and then transfer this method to crops. In order to do this, the process of genome elimination must be studied in more detail.

“The precise mechanism of how and when one parental genome is eliminated needs to be determined,” Maruchathalam said in an e-mail interview. “Currently, we are collaborating with several groups to understand the nature of the mechanism of genome elimination.”

Ultimately, the researchers hope to utilize their new methods in important, widely used crops.

“We hope our method will democratize haploid breeding, especially in the developing world,” Chan said.

MEGAN MURPHY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org. XXX

Life’s rough if you’re a male sage grouse.

First, you have to live in Montana, where there’s no In-N-Out Burger. Second, you will probably never get laid.

Spring is mating season for the sage grouse of the Great Plains. It’s a time for migration, vocalization and twitter-pation, but not a lot of action.

A male sage grouse is a bird about the size and shape of a turkey. It has a plump, grayish body with a frilly plumed tail. The males have two big “vocal sacks” that puff up like balloons and jiggle around as the male tries to woo the lady-grouse.

Alan Krakauer, postdoctoral researcher in animal behavior at UC Davis, told me about the elaborate sage grouse mating ritual.

What’s hot to a female grouse? Krakauer said the males start by rustling their feathers to make a noise like “when you walk in corduroy pants.” Then they flirt with a pattern of three low frequency “coo” sounds, one popping-sound and a whistle.

“The vocal sacks are used throughout most of the rapid movement and near the end during the pops and the whistles,” Krakauer said.

These randy males migrate every spring to traditional breeding grounds called “leks.” They will do the cooing/popping mating display hundreds of times a day. The female grouse (yes, grouse is the plural of grouse) get to pick their mates.

“The females basically get to shop around and check out the males,” Krakauer said. “It’s kind of like a singles bar.”

And – like in a singles bar – many males will strike out. These leks attract dozens to hundreds of males and females, but usually just one or two males get all the mating.

“It’s an unfair game,” Krakauer said. “A lot of males don’t ever get to mate.”

To the researchers, these male grouse all look the same. Same cooing pattern, same silly vocal sacks. Krakauer and his colleagues think the secret lies somewhere in the chorus of mating sounds.

When early naturalists first saw the grouse mating display, they noticed the males actually turned away from the females when they made the noises. The naturalists assumed the display was not meant to woo the ladies, but to impress other males.

“There are a lot of human analogies,” Krakauer said.

Researchers later discovered that by turning away from the females, the males were enhancing the pitch of the noises.

“We think [turning away] might help in the resonance of the sound, making the lower frequency sounds louder.” Kraukauer said.

For a talented few, the system works wonders. Dozens of female grouse will compete for the chosen male. Female grouse also practice mate-choice copying, which means they will choose a male without even seeing the mating display. If the female sees that a previous female has chosen a male, he is suddenly desirable.

After all the drama over mate-choice, I can’t help but be disappointed for the females. Birds, like doves and crows, have a pair-bond system where they stick together and help each other out with the babies. The male grouse, however, just move on to the next female.

“They probably don’t even know where the nests are,” Krakauer said.

This behavior is why the mating noises are so important. The tones somehow indicate the quality of the male’s genetics. The females aren’t looking for a male who will be a good provider; they’ve learned that males who sing a good song will produce superior chicks.

It seems like the selective breeding process would lead to population decline among grouse. Krakauer said that’s not how it works, though.

The breeding system is fine, but grouse numbers are declining due to habitat destruction. The region popular with grouse also holds deposits of methane and other natural gases. This fuel is valuable, so the grouse breeding grounds are disappearing. Without the leks, grouse don’t know where to meet up to mate.

As if those unlucky males need another thing to worry about.

MADELINE McCURRY-SCHMIDT thinks you should check out video of sage grouse mating displays on YouTube. Look up “greater sage grouse strut display” to see the birds filmed by UC Davis folks. E-mail her at memschmidt@ucdavis.edu.