A.
An Innovative Study Reveals How Proteins Fold
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Proteins in our body perform
different functions according to their shape, so
understanding how a protein folds is considered
a very important area of study. Physicist Everett
Lipman of the University of California, Santa Barbara
explains why.
Lipman:
Misfolding has been implicated in a lot of diseases
and the other reason why it's interesting to understand
the folding is because we now have all this genetic
information and so we know, sort of in some sense,
what proteins are gonna be made. But it's like having
a book in another language because we really don't
understand what's going to happen at the end of
the day when these proteins are put together.
Narrator:
For the first time, Lipman observed single molecules
at various times of the folding process using a
tiny microfluidic device, which is a set of channels
etched onto a silicon chip.
Lipman:
In the past, people have been able to do an experiment
like this where they would take millions of millions
of these molecules and put them in a solution and
make some measurements. But what we've been able
to do is look at one of these at a time and that
way you can actually see what's going on at a much
more detailed level.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Discussing End-of-Life Care is Crucial for Decision
Making
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Contemplating potential end-of-life
decisions is difficult, especially for young, healthy
people. According to Felicia Cohn, the director
of medical ethics at the University of California,
Irvine College of Medicine, it's important that
we discuss our wishes with loved ones, so that they
know how to proceed should they ever need to make
medical decisions for us.
Cohn:
I get a lot of people who tell me they just can't
have that kind of conversation with their family.
How can you bring it up over dinner? Most of us
don't want to think about the ends of our lives
until we are actually staring it in the face.
Narrator:
But Cohn says most of us cannot anticipate the specific
types of medical situations we may be faced with.
Cohn:
It's really important to think about in advance
so that your loved ones know what kinds of things
you would be interested in, and so that you yourself
have a sense yourself, because it's a lot harder
to have that conversation when you're sitting in
the waiting room of a hospital while your loved
one's lying in a hospital bed.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Rare Medical Errors Often Overshadow More Common
Cases
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Medical errors are common
and serious occurrences, yet the ones that get the
most attention are the ones that are most rare.
Dr. Seth Landefeld, chief of geriatrics at the University
of California, San Francisco, reviewed medial error
discussions at hospital conferences and describes
the rare cases.
Landefeld:
Mrs. Jones is supposed to get the surgery and
they take in Mrs. Smith instead or something - those
happen once in a blue moon, extraordinarily rare.
I think the things that we're often much more concerned
about are just the ones that happen more frequently.
Where, we might have been able to do a better job
of something, that the wrong dose of a drug was
given, diagnosis is missed. Those are the sorts
of things that are more common.
Narrator:
Landefeld's study found there's not enough discussion
of medical errors during weekly hospital review
conferences.
Landefeld:
These conferences are phenomenal learning opportunities
and one way to get people to be more open and to
learn is for the person who is sort of the leader
to say - "oh gosh, something like that happened
to me once and this is what I did to avoid it in
the future."
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Understanding the Health Effects of Ultra-fine Particles
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Inhalation of air pollutants
like those produced by the exhaust fumes of automobiles,
can expose us to a variety of toxic gases and particles.
According to Dr. Ralph Delfino, an associate professor
at the University of California, Irvine, exposure
to pollutants known as ultra-fine particles can
have serious health consequences because the toxins
can enter the deepest regions of the lungs.
Delfino:
They're a tenth of a micron in diameter. So they
not only can reach deep into the lungs, but they're
thought to be capable of penetrating right through
the tissue of the lungs and into the bloodstream.
Narrator:
Once in the bloodstream, these toxic particles
can affect other organs in the body, such as the
heart. Delfino is investigating the toxicity of
these particles and the mechanism of their health
effects.
Delfino:
When you're breathing air pollutants, the assumption
is it must be affecting your lungs. Low and behold
over the last decade we've been finding more and
more associations between cardiovascular, especially
heart disease outcomes and air pollutant exposures
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
The Facts about Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, or DCIS
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Ductal carcinoma in situ,
or DCIS, is a non-invasive form of breast cancer
and accounts for twenty percent of all newly diagnosed
cases of the disease in the United States. Dr. Karla
Kerlikowske of the University of California, San
Francisco says it's a type of breast lesion that's
contained within the milk ducts.
Kerlikowske:
Genetically, it's fairly advanced having lots
of genetic changes that look like invasive cancer,
but the thing that makes it interesting is that
not everyone who has those lesions goes on to get
invasive cancer. So, some people look at it as a
precursor of invasive cancer. Some people think
it's just a marker or a risk factor for those who
will get invasive cancer.
Narrator:
Prior to mammography being introduced in the
Eighties, Kerlikowske says DCIS was very uncommon.
Kerlikowske:
And that's because it's rare to present as a breast
lump. And since the advent of screening mammography,
the incidence has gone up four, to five, six hundred
percent, some people say.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
