Search

Home > UC Science Today > The weekly roundup - March 25th
Podcast: UC Science Today
Episode:

The weekly roundup - March 25th
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:02:07
Publish Date: 2017-03-22 19:00:00
Description: Hi there, thanks for tuning in to Science Today’s weekly roundup. As usual, we covered a range of topics and met with some really great researchers. First, as cool as it is to have a medical device to check up on the health of astronauts in deep space, it’s even better if the same technology can be used here on Earth. That’s just what research scientist Matthew Coleman at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had in mind when he developed a prototype of a handheld diagnostic device for NASA. In fact, he can see it being used for environmental monitoring, too. "To look at even just water. I mean, if it works with saliva, it will certainly work with water from the environment. It could work with material isolated from insects and plants and trees. So, we could do all kinds of environmental sensing." And since the handheld device is rugged enough for space, Coleman says it would be perfect to use in the African desert, too. Meanwhile, over at the Berkeley Lab, researchers are striving to unveil the secrets about ‘dark’ DNA, part of the genome that does not code proteins, but plays an important role in regulating genes. Scientist Diane Dickel has been working on finding all of these non-coding regulators, called enhancers, and is pinning them on a map. "I mean, it’s kind of like building a road map and adding information onto that to point that particular pairs in the genome act as these enhancer elements to regulate gene expression." So, why are they doing this? The map will help researchers get a better picture of dark DNA and this, in turn, could shed light on whether mutations in the enhancers cause genetic diseases. This could be the next step towards improving genetic testing. And speaking of improvements – a dentist at UCSF is working to get more prevention in dental care and less use of the drill. Dr. Peter Rechmann found better education about caries risk could especially help low-income patients. "The income on its own actually doesn’t matter at all. It’s just if someone suffers to survive, he doesn’t have the time to spend ‘x’ minutes of taking care of their teeth." Hear these and other University of California research stories. Subscribe to Science Today on iTunes or Soundcloud. 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/space_device https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/dark_dna https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/poverty_teeth
Total Play: 0