This Date in UCSF History: Promising New Abortion Drug
[Originally published in Synapse on Dec. 2, 1993.] Every year there are some four million unintended pregnancies in the United States, approximately 1.6 million end in abortion.
Pictures of Living Things
So much of science and medicine comes down to taking pictures. Biology, especially, has long been considered an observational enterprise...
The Most Lethal Part of Cancer
The most lethal part of cancer is that it spreads. Stopping the spread of cancer, known as metastasis, would be...
The Science of Dietary Risks
Red wine. Coffee. Dark chocolate. Epidemiologists, doctors, and nutrition scientists are constantly analyzing the good and bad consequences of different...
Unraveling Metastasis, the Lethal Agent of Cancer
Cancer is not just one disease. Were it, we could imagine a single cure. Instead, we find that cancer is...
Biologically-Inspired Engineering
The past few years have seen an increase in robotics inspired by the natural world. These robots are designed to...
mtDNA Recombination: O'Farrell Lab
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. These organelles support cellular functions through ATP production and have been implicated in...
This month in DNA repair: the elephant and the prize
Increases in body size and lifespan should theoretically make an animal more prone to DNA replication errors that can produce...
The Parts of the Brain
Consider brains and computers. How are they similar? Both can perform complex, rational tasks. Both take inputs and make decisions...
Tauopathies: A Neurodegenerative Disease
Tauopathies are a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases defined by their cellular pathology. Their name refers to the protein tau which...