UC San Diego (Audio)

UCLA’s Avishek Adhikari, PhD, presents new research on the role of GABAergic neurons in the brain’s periaqueductal gray (PAG) region. Previously studied for their involvement in fear and defensive behaviors, these neurons were found to promote food-seeking behavior when activated—even in fully fed mice. Using calcium imaging and optogenetics, Adhikari’s team discovered that these neurons are activ...

Sheng Zhong, Ph. D. pioneers technologies that advance women’s reproductive health. Zhong develops a minimally invasive method to analyze extracellular RNA secreted by embryos during IVF. By sequencing tiny samples of spent culture media, they generate comprehensive RNA profiles and use machine learning to identify biomarkers that predict embryo quality with accuracy comparable to traditional imag...

Join Fadel Zeidan, Ph. D. for a guided meditation. Follow along as he teaches simple breathing techniques and short practices designed to build focus and calm the nervous system. Series: "Stein Institute for Research on Aging" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40783]

Andrea Z. LaCroix, Ph. D. presents major public health trends affecting women across the lifespan, from rising maternal mortality and chronic disease risks linked to pregnancy complications to the ongoing need for improved menopause care. She highlights innovative research, including digital tools for menopause education, studies on cancer survivorship, and efforts to predict healthy aging using e...

Linda Brubaker, M.D. emphasizes the urgent need to advance women’s health research beyond its traditional focus on reproduction, pregnancy, menopause, and breast cancer. She highlights the biological, social, and lifestyle factors that affect women across the lifespan and calls for greater inclusion of women in clinical research. Brubaker announces her leadership of a new JAMA initiative to centra...

Antoni J. Duleba, M.D. outlines the broad scope of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, emphasizing care across a woman’s lifespan—from adolescence through menopause. He explains common endocrine conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, and menstrual disorders, all of which can affect fertility and overall health. Duleba highlights advances in fertility preservation,...

Gretchen Bandoli, Ph. D., highlights four major research initiatives within her division focused on maternal and child health. The Center for Better Beginnings studies medication and vaccine safety during pregnancy and lactation through ongoing cohort studies. The Mommy’s Milk Human Milk Research Biorepository collects breast milk samples to investigate postnatal exposures. The SOMI study links me...

Emily Lukacz, M.D., M.A.S. presents research from two national networks focused on female pelvic floor disorders. One project studies bladder health in over 3,000 women to identify factors that support wellness rather than disease. Another conducts large-scale clinical trials, including a randomized study comparing two minimally invasive treatments for stress urinary incontinence. Additional trial...

Kuiyi Shen, Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at UC San Diego, offers a fascinating look at Japanese art during the Nara period, a golden age of court culture. He explores the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji in Nara, from its monumental bronze casting to the throne imagery depicting the Western Paradise. Shen highlights the Four Heavenly Kings (Shitennō) and their symbolic armor, influenced...

The human body has traits that evolved at different times, from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago, each bringing health benefits and risks. Multicellularity enabled organs and cancer. The immune system defends us but can cause inflammation. Breastfeeding supports infant health but relates to breast cancer risk. Menstruation and invasive placentas improved reproduction but led to pain and cancer r...

Humans have long been exposed to three main types of smoke: from early domestic fires, modern wildfires, and more recently, tobacco and fossil fuel pollution. All release tiny particles from partly burned plants, containing harmful chemicals like nitrogen oxides and carcinogens. These particles raise risks for lung cancer, dementia, and even childhood obesity. Studies show that air pollution can d...

What paradoxes arise when victims of related persecution tell their stories next to, and after, each other? This question is at the heart of Ari Joskowicz’s highly acclaimed book “Rain of Ash,” which examines the unlikely entanglement of the histories of Jews and Romani people—the only two racialized groups the Nazis targeted for wholesale extermination. Joskowicz, professor of Jewish Studies at V...

The human gut microbiome is tightly linked our health. Our analyses of diverse human populations from around the globe, ranging from hunter-gatherer to industrialized, show that the gut microbiome is profoundly influenced by lifestyle. With a large collaborative team, we conducted deep metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiomes of Tsimane horticulturalists from Bolivia and compared them to thos...

Frank Silva talks with writer and educator Eduardo Corvera about the power of reading, writing, and the humanities. They explore how stories help us understand ourselves and the world around us. Corvera shares insights on teaching, the writing process, and why being honest and curious is essential for young writers. It’s a thoughtful and inspiring conversation about creativity, literature, and fin...

The essence of Being Human is the practice of Biocultural Reproduction (BCR). BCR is defined as the set of marriage and kinship based rules for extra-maternal cooperation in the production, feeding, and care of offspring. Human evolution theory needs to explain how people successfully combined a vastly extended period of offspring dependency and delayed reproduction with helpless newborns — with l...

In this thoughtful presentation, Professor Emerita Laura Rendón, Ph. D., of the University of Texas - San Antonio, talks about her advocacy work in student preparation, access, and success. Her research has been published in education research journals and informed policies and practices within higher education that have transformed the lives of students. As the creator of the Validation Theory, s...

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most important challenges of modern medicine worldwide. They are often attributed to maladaptations of our body to our peculiar form of locomotion, upright bipedalism. This lecture will explore the evolutionary origin of major musculoskeletal disorders such as back problems and hip joint osteoarthritis. I will show that these problems represent a relatively...

Phenotypic variation within the skeleton has biological, behavioral, and biomedical functional implications for individuals and species. Thus, it is critical to understand how genomic, environmental, and mediating regulatory factors combine and interact to drive skeletal trait development and evolution. One way to do this is by studying skeletal diseases that disrupt skeletal function — like osteo...

The rate of cancer and cancer malignancy differ greatly among mammalian species. The placental – maternal interface is also highly variable between placental mammals. This lecture will discuss recent advances that suggest that there is a causal connection between the evolution of placental biology and the biology and rate of cancer malignancy. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Trai...

Experts discuss recent advances in how maternal health and immune function during pregnancy affect infant development and long-term outcomes. Research focuses on immune adaptations, complications like preterm birth, and neuroimmune pathways, using techniques such as mass cytometry, spatial proteomics, and chemogenetics to identify biomarkers and mechanisms that guide prevention and treatment strat...

Explore key aspects of aging and menopause, focusing on women’s health and how biological changes impact overall well-being. Experts discuss current research on healthy aging, including the role of physical activity, brain health, and hormone changes during menopause. They highlight how sex differences affect diseases like Alzheimer’s and emphasize the importance of personalized approaches to trea...

Menstruation is the cyclical shedding of the endometrium triggered by falling progesterone levels. Menstruation is a rare trait found in less than 2% of mammals and likely evolved independently at least 4 times. Why do some mammals menstruate while most do not? The leading hypothesis is that menstruation occurs as a nonadaptive consequence of spontaneous decidualization of the endometrium, which e...

William Lowry, Ph. D., discusses manipulating metabolic pathways in hair follicle stem cells to inhibit tumorigenesis. By blocking glycolysis and glutamine lysis simultaneously, they observed tumor regression, highlighting the complex interplay between metabolism and cancer. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 39256]

Experts highlight innovative research and clinical advances in fertility and infertility. Speakers share new ways to improve IVF outcomes using liquid biopsy and RNA analysis, aiming to predict embryo quality without invasive tests. They also explore how imaging technologies can better detect and monitor reproductive cancers, helping tailor treatments for conditions like ovarian and cervical cance...

Pressures of life on Earth experienced by our ancestors – as multicellular beings, as hosts to parasites, and as home to microbes – shaped the evolved structure and function of our immune systems.  Some of the traits favored by natural selection have conferred resistance against infections while opening vulnerabilities to autoimmune diseases.  I will illustrate why analysis of the deep-time origin...