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A.
Researchers Set to 'STAMP' out Harmful Bacteria
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the UCLA School of Dentistry are set to ‘STAMP' out harmful bacteria, while leaving helpful bacteria undisturbed. This novel antimicrobial technology called STAMP is short for specific targeted antimicrobial peptide. Wenyuan Shi, a professor and chair of oral biology, says STAMP can treat tooth decay, periodontal disease and ultimately, any bacterial infection in the body.
Shi: Bacterial infection is one of the leading causes of death in the United States or in the world and even though antibiotics have been one of the popular choice – and probably the only choice at this point – to control the bacterial infection, 104 one of the potential problems with the current antibiotics on the market, they all have a broad killing spectrum.
Narrator: Instead, STAMP works like a smart bomb – selectively killing the target and leaving the ‘good' elements intact.
Shi: So the technology like this, the targeted antimicrobial therapy, is really probably one of the first of its kind.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Origins of Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs
Narrator: This is Science Today. Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were widely used in products such as aerosol sprays, were banned in 1995. That same year, F. Sherwood Rowland, a professor of chemistry and Earth system science at the University of California , Irvine , shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his part in discovering CFCs were damaging the Earth's protective ozone layer. Rowland explains that CFCs are man-made gases composed of carbon, chlorine and fluorine that were invented in the late 1920s as substitute refrigerants.
Rowland: The early refrigerants were molecules that were easily converted from liquid to gas and the problem that sometimes they escape and they're obnoxious or worse. So, they were looking for an inert material and they specifically designed CFCs as refrigerants. And this ability to convert from a liquid to a gas is also very useful in aerosol propellants. So, the uses grew very rapidly. That's why the CFCs began to accumulate in the atmosphere.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Scientists Get NASA Help with Network of Buoys on Lake Tahoe
Narrator: This is Science Today. A network of buoys has been placed on Lake Tahoe by scientists from the University of California , Davis and NASA. These high-tech sensors will transmit various data to researchers about the lake, which is the second deepest in the United States . Geoffrey Schladow, a civil and environmental engineer at UC Davis, is director of the university's Tahoe Environmental Research Center .
Schladow: We're transitioning now to a new way of doing science. And the way we like to do it is through continuous measurement and having those data available in real time.
Narrator: There are currently six buoys on Lake Tahoe .
Schladow: They are all instrumented, and we are getting those data directly from wireless modems, over the Internet, and we can see how the wind direction is changing across the lake; we can see what the clarity is doing in the lake and the water temperature. By having these buoys and working with NASA, we're getting data from every part of the lake and every part of the watershed.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The Diagnosis and Treatment of Cervical Disc Disease
Narrator: This is Science Today. Cervical disc disease refers to a degeneration of discs located in the cervical spine, which begins at the base of the skull. Dr. Kee Kim, co-director of the University of California , Davis Health System Spine Program, says the degeneration occurs as we age and there is a broad spectrum of severity of problems as a result of cervical disc disease.
Kim: The most common complaint is pain – pain involving their neck and when you ask about the pain, typically they will talk about pain going down to the shoulder and going down to their hand. Just from asking exactly where the distribution of pain, we can pick out which nerve is being pinched and that is one very common symptom that patients present with.
Narrator: The current standard treatment is spinal fusion surgery, but Kim is participating in a nationwide study investigating the use of an artificial disc.
Kim: I have to kind of see whether this disc is truly revolutionary, but I do feel that this is a clearly important step towards better treatment of patients.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. Researchers Find a Way to Cripple the Spread of Melanoma
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center have discovered a way to essentially reverse the immune suppression of lymph nodes involved in the spread of melanoma. Dr. Alistair Cochran says they achieved this by basically stimulating the immune response of the sentinel lymph node – the node most susceptible to the early spread of melanoma.
Cochran: We became interested in the possibility that the tumor cells were capable of producing molecules which were biologically active and which could reduce the competence of the lymph node to defend itself.
Narrator: The researchers found this to be the case and were able to inject patients with a compound that stimulates the immune response in the node.
Cochran: So, one can envisage a situation in which a patient who had a very small tumor burden in the sentinel lymph nodes, given these bioactive molecules before the sentinel node biopsy, could in fact experience a regression or a destruction of these early stages of the metastatic process.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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