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Home > UC Science Today > The weekly roundup - September 2nd
Podcast: UC Science Today
Episode:

The weekly roundup - September 2nd
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:01:38
Publish Date: 2016-08-30 19:00:00
Description: This week on Science Today. University of California researchers are on the front lines when it comes to figuring out how the Zika virus makes its way to a fetus. Dr. Lenore Pereira of UC San Francisco, worked with UC Berkeley researchers, to show there are two routes used by Zika to make its way to a developing baby. "We were able to isolate human cells from the placenta and infect them with Zika virus and show that the virus could replicate in cells that came from the placenta itself or from the fetal membranes." The team also discovered that an existing antibiotic may be able to limit the damage wreaked by the virus. Meanwhile, UCSF researchers are also looking to keep healthy babies healthier later in life. Epidemiologist Janet Wojcicki discovered a link between breastfeeding and longer telomere length. Telomeres are the protective caps on our DNA and the shorter they are, the more risk of chronic disease. "We know from other studies that breastfeeding has a whole array of benefits, but we don’t really know in all cases what that mechanism is and so the fact that it’s impacting at the cellular level was very exciting." UC Berkeley chemists are also getting down to the level of neurons to find out just how the nutrient copper mediates conversations between cells. Chris Chang says they’ve been studying the interface between metals and neuroscience for a while. "And the thing that we ended up finding was that copper is important for having brain cells communicate with each other normally." Don’t miss the latest University of California research news. Subscribe to UC Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. And don’t forget to look us up on Facebook. Until next time, I’m Larissa Branin. Subscribe to Science Today: iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday Stories mentioned in this roundup: https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/zika_infection https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/breastfeeding_benefits https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/copper_brain
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