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A.
Myelin Breakdown Implicated in Developmental & Degenerative Disorders
Narrator: This is Science Today. A UCLA neuroscientist has uncovered evidence that points to the production of myelin – a fatty insulation that coats the brain's internal wiring – as the weak link associated in both developmental and degenerative disorders of the brain. George Bartzokis, director of the UCLA Memory Disorders Clinic, explains.
Bartzokis: Myelin has many things that can go wrong in development and when that happens, you end up having developmental disorders – such as autism, ADHD, schizophrenia and so on. And if you got lucky and you develop normally, when you get in old age, myelin because it's very vulnerable, breaks down.
Narrator: That's because myelin, which accounts for one quarter of the brain, is made up entirely of lipids and many things including free radicals, damage these lipids.
Bartzokis: Even though it is the very thing that allows us to develop as humans, it is also our Achilles heel or our weakest link.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison
Narrator: This is Science Today. The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison was established at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1989. Its mission is to develop better methods and tools for the diagnosis and intercomparison of general circulation models that affect the global climate. Peter Gleckler is an atmospheric scientist at the Lab.
Gleckler: Here at Livermore , we are not designing these models; we're actually studying the results from other institutions. These models run on the most complex, biggest, fastest computers around and spill out amazing amount of data that we study and compare with observations. So, they are capturing many realistic things that we see in the climate. And much of what we do here is to evaluate the credibility of these models, but comparing them with observations and gaining confidence for what they're telling us about the future climate or even the past climate.
Narrator: Gleckler recently tested the effects of past volcanic eruptions on recent climate models. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Lung Cancer Does Not Have Strong Advocacy Groups
Narrator: This is Science Today. Every year, lung cancer kills more American men and women than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. And yet, from a research standpoint, of all the cancers studied, lung cancer is the least funded. Dr. Angela Davies, of the University of California , Davis Cancer Center , says one reason is lung cancer does not have strong advocacy groups.
Davis : I think there are a number of potential reasons why lung cancer doesn't have a strong advocacy group such as breast cancer or HIV/AIDS for example. One would be the stigma associated with lung cancer from smoking and the direct relationship of smoking to lung cancer.
Narrator: Davies says the other potential reason for the lack of strong advocacy is that lung cancer patients do not live long enough.
Davies: Patients are often very ill; the therapies cause many side effects and they die very quickly, so that we're really not able to develop these advocacy groups.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Finding Suggests a New Approach to Treating Melanoma
Narrator: This is Science Today. Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer that will affect more than 60 thousand Americans this year. About eight thousand patients will die from the disease. Dr. Alistair Cochran of the UCLA Jonnson Cancer Center says most melanoma patients undergo surgery but few other treatments including chemotherapy have proven effective against this aggressive cancer.
Cochran: But unfortunately at this time, compared to the effectiveness of similar treatments in other disease systems like breast cancer, the treatments for melanoma are comparatively ineffective. So, the main emphasis is early identification and early treatment surgically.
Narrator: Cochran recently discovered a chemical way to reverse the immune suppression of lymph nodes linked to the early spread of the cancer – a finding that may one day lead to ways to protect melanoma patients before their cancers attempt to spread.
Cochran: It really opens up an entirely new approach to therapy and in the case of melanoma, we certainly need some kind of new therapy.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. The Impact of Ancestry on the Development of Disease in Women
Narrator: This is Science Today. A first-of-its-kind genetic study to determine the impact of ancestry on the development of diseases in woman will be led by researchers at the University of California , Davis . The first part of the study involves women of African-American or European ancestry to pinpoint the location of genes linked to decreased bone mineral density, which is a measure for osteoporosis. Michael Seldin, Chair of the Rowe Program in Human Genetics at UC Davis who will lead the study, recently discovered distinct genetic profiles for Northern and Southern Europeans.
Seldin: This particular study was looking at whether there were differences or similarities among different populations derived from different European countries and we considered that this would be important because of the large number of studies that we're involved in as well, trying to find genes for complex human diseases.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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