UC San Diego (Audio)

Human brain organoids help researchers study neurodevelopmental disorders that are difficult to examine directly in developing brain tissue. Giorgia Quadrato, USC, uses cortical organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells to examine SYNGAP1, an autism risk gene associated in the transcript with intellectual disability, epilepsy, and global developmental delay. Quadrato describes how SYNGAP...

Rome survived for 2,000 years. Edward Watts explores the long history of the Roman state and the lessons it offers for the modern world. From its beginnings as a small Italian city-state to its transformation into a Christian empire centered in Constantinople, Rome maintained a remarkable sense of political continuity across centuries of cultural and religious change. Watts examines how Roman inst...

Hard optimization problems often look impossible through worst-case analysis, but real-world problems can contain structure that helps algorithms work faster. Ellen Vitercik, Ph. D., of Stanford University explains how machine learning can improve algorithm design for NP-hard optimization problems while preserving the formal guarantees that make solvers useful. She discusses beyond worst-case anal...

Heart regeneration faces two connected challenges: replacing lost muscle and keeping transplanted cells safe and accepted by the body. Charles Murry, M.D., Ph. D., of USC explains why the adult heart heals major cardiomyocyte loss with scar tissue rather than new muscle, leading to progressive heart failure. Murry describes how stem cell derived cardiomyocytes can be manufactured at scale, transpl...

In an age obsessed with expertise, certainty, and endless self-optimization, author and journalist Simone Stolzoff invites audiences to rediscover the power of curiosity, humility, and not having all the answers. His new book, How to Not Know, challenges the cultural pressure to define ourselves by what we do or what we know—and instead celebrates the richness of uncertainty as a pathway to creati...

Hematopoietic stem cells make blood across the lifespan, but they do not all behave the same way. Stephanie Xie, Ph. D., Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, examines how these rare cells self-renew, differentiate, and respond to inflammatory stress, asking whether differences in the stem cell pool help explain why aging affects people so differently. Xie identifies...

Rare disease research is creating new paths for diagnosis, treatment, and broader medical discovery. Gene therapy can repair or replace faulty genes, and work on cystinosis has led to a stem cell platform now being applied to Danon disease, Sanfilippo syndrome C, Friedreich’s ataxia, and Alzheimer’s research. Funding programs support gene therapy, clinical trials, and new platform approaches for r...

Health data affects artificial intelligence in important ways. Camille Nebeker, Ed. D., M.S., UC San Diego, explains why ethically sourced data is foundational to building trustworthy, AI-ready health data repositories. Nebeker examines how ethical sourcing applies across the full data lifecycle, including consent, governance, transparency, data quality, privacy, stewardship, and community engagem...

Pre-cancer and cancer can begin when stressed blood-forming stem cells lose their normal controls. Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph. D., UC San Diego, explains how inflammation-linked editing enzymes, repetitive elements in the genome, and stem cell stress shape the progression from myeloproliferative neoplasms to acute myeloid leukemia. Jamieson examines how spaceflight accelerates stem cell aging, ho...

Space healthcare depends on connected health data that can follow people wherever care happens. Peter DeVault, Epic, explains how electronic health record tools built for hospitals, labs, and patients can also support healthcare in space. DeVault describes patient-facing tools like MyChart, interoperability across health systems, structured genomics and pharmacogenomics in the patient record, and...

Brain aging and disease research can gain new insights from space. Aline M.A. Martins, Ph. D., UC San Diego, explains how neuroscience studies in space use brain organoids, proteomics, and single-cell analysis to understand cognition decline, space-induced neurosenescence, and disease-related changes. Martins examines molecular markers of senescence, mitochondrial impairment, and neuroinflammation...

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben has helped shape how the world understands climate change. In this conversation with Marco Werman, host of The World, McKibben offers a clear-eyed look at the climate crisis and the solutions that could help reduce the damage of a warming planet. As part of the Burke Lectureship at UC San Diego, McKibben also explores the moral and spiritual questions at t...

How does global warming connect to the extreme weather people experience close to home? Drawing on the work of the Weather Extremes and Climate Impacts Analytics group, Sasha Gershunov of Scripps Institution of Oceanography outlines the accelerating warming trend, the role of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse effect, and how it relates to extreme weather. He also traces key miles...

Microgravity can change biological systems in ways that may open new paths for biomedical research and commercialization in space. Twyman Clements, Space Tango, explains how “middleware” helps connect research use cases with space infrastructure by adapting terrestrial processes and supply chains for a spaceflight environment. Clements examines how long-duration microgravity creates different phys...

Stem cell health in space matters for astronaut health and cancer research. Jessica Pham, UC San Diego, explains how spaceflight shapes normal hematopoietic stem cells and cancer stem cells through nano bioreactor studies, astronaut blood analysis, and tumor organoid work in low-Earth orbit. Pham examines increased cycling and reduced dormancy in space, reduced self-renewal after return, and ongoi...

Privacy-preserving computation can help hospitals and researchers use sensitive health data without exposing it. Farinaz Koushanfar, Ph. D., UC San Diego, explains how secure computation and distributed learning make it possible to collaborate on medical data while protecting patient privacy. Koushanfar examines secure multi-party computation, zero-knowledge proofs, and federated and split learnin...

Computer-based assessment can change how students practice, test, and learn. Craig Zilles, Ph. D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explains how PrairieLearn supports mastery-oriented teaching through immediate feedback, auto-grading, randomized question generators, and repeat practice. Zilles examines asynchronous exams, frequent small tests, retake opportunities, and question banks desig...

Architect Drew Hubbell explores the intersection of sustainable design and architectural artistry, highlighting how thoughtful, aesthetically rich structures can also embody strong environmental principles. He presents several recent projects, with particular attention to their fire-resistant strategies and materials. Against the backdrop of increasingly destructive wildfires across California, Hu...

Sexual health is an important part of healthy aging and offers a useful way to understand how well-being can change without disappearing in later life. Annie L. Nguyen, Ph. D., M.P.H., UC San Diego, explains how sexual interest, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction follow different patterns as people age. Nguyen examines research on health status, relationship context, and gender differences,...

Artificial intelligence affects how we understand the behavior of machine learning systems. Stefano Soatto, VP of Applied Science, Amazon Web Services, explains how ideas from information geometry shape emerging theories of how these artifacts work. Soatto examines the natural gradient, the connections between geometry and concepts such as probability distributions, entropy, mutual information, an...

Youth mental health is increasingly shaped by how teens use AI for emotional support outside clinical care. Cinnamon Bloss, Ph. D., UC San Diego, explains how growing use of conversational AI reflects major gaps in care and changing preferences for support. Bloss examines the appeal of AI’s accessibility and nonjudgmental responses, concerns about replacing human connection, and the need to monito...

Carol Gilligan, professor at New York University, received the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, specifically in the field of Thought and Ethics, for pioneering a new horizon for the “ethic of care” while pointing out the distortions and limitations of conventional psychological theories pertaining to women’s thoughts and behaviors. By offering research-based insights into women’s moral reasonin...

Brain aging and neurological disease are hard to study because living human brain tissue is difficult to access. Alysson Muotri, Ph. D., UC San Diego, explains how brain organoids sent to space can model accelerated aging, reveal changes in neural networks, and help test potential treatments for brain disorders. Muotri examines space-induced senescence, fragmented network activity linked to dement...

Shun-ichi Amari received the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology, specifically in the field of Information Technology, for his work on neural network dynamics and learning theory. His studies also elucidate our understanding of brain activity in perceptual systems such as vision. Amari established a new academic field that he named “information geometry,” which considers statistical models and prob...

Menopause can affect sexual health in ways that are common, frustrating, and often overlooked. Kathryn Macaulay, M.D., Director, UC San Diego Menopause Health Program, explains how hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause contribute to vaginal dryness, pain with intercourse, and low libido. Macaulay also outlines why these symptoms can have more than one cause, including physical change...