Malaria is a disease caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Severe cases cause hundreds of thousands of deaths per year, infant mortality/low-birth weight/abnormal neurological development, anemia and respiratory distress, while mild cases cause fever/fatigue/vomiting. Afflicted countries endure severe economic distress as a byproduct of this human suffering. Luckily, in the US we [...]
The biomedical research world is a complicated one; were it not, many diseases would have been cured decades ago. But every once in awhile, novel research illuminates a simple solution to a complex problem. Here, two studies demonstrate that the use of particular anesthetics can have serious consequences for patient recovery after medical procedures. In [...]
The cure for cancer is coming, but a timeline is difficult to predict, and the cure will not be the “magic bullet” imagined by many laymen. Rather, “the cure” will likely be thousands of different drugs combined with hundreds of other treatments like surgery/radiation/immunotherapy, combined with hundreds of strategies for early detection, combined with hundreds [...]
Hey everyone! Summer 2020 science workshops on Molecular Biology of Cancer, Molecular Neuroscience, Molecular Immunology, Molecular Biology of Aging, Bioinformatics of Cancer and Biomedical Research are now scheduled at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego and at our facility in Alameda, CA. Workshops held at UC Berkeley are 6/7-6/20 and 6/21-7/4. Workshops held at UC [...]
The Regeneron Science Talent Search 2020 application is now open! High school seniors across the United States are invited to share their original research projects and apply to the nation’s oldest and most prestigious STEM competition, where they could win up to $250,000. The top 300 scholars receive $2,000 each, and their schools also receive [...]
Summer 2020 workshops will be scheduled soon, but first we would like to announce our annual winter break Medical and Translational Bioinformatics workshop to be held 12/26-12/30 in Berkeley, California. This is a great workshop for anyone who is interested in doing research out of general interest or for a science project. Email info@rosettainstitute.org for [...]
The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren for their discovery that peptic ulcers were caused by a bacterial (Helicobacter pylori) infection. Thereafter, this common human malady was easily treated with antibiotics. But perhaps more importantly, this new treatment helped to prevent one of the deadliest [...]
Our knowledge of cancer biology in 2019 is extensive, however there are several enduring problems that make it difficult to translate this knowledge into new, effective therapeutics. Oncogenes are genes that contribute to tumor initiation and/or tumor progression, and with oncogenes the therapeutic strategy is to block or inhibit their function; we have been fairly [...]
Anyone can imagine being very thirsty. Similarly, everyone knows that the craving disappears like magic once sufficient water has been consumed. But why? And why – when thirsty - does an ice cold glass of fresh water sound so much more refreshing than a warm glass of saltwater? There are biochemical reasons for these familiar [...]
What if you didn’t experience physical pain? This is an attractive idea, but of course pain is necessary to alert you to hazardous situations. What if you didn’t experience anxiety? Again, this is an attractive idea, but anxiety alerts us to potentially dangerous situations so corrective action can be taken. From the perspective of evolution, [...]