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| September 2009 |
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The 25-year history of contributions to HIV/AIDS research and discovery by California researchers was celebrated at a September 25th event hosted by the CCM.
Keynote speaker was 2008 Nobel Laureate Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-discoverer of HIV. The event celebrated the teamwork and contributions of researchers from California, including researchers from the CNPRC who contributed early on in the AIDS epidemic, and who continue to contribute to the advancement of the science, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Davis Enterprise: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, "HIV Teamwork was Key"
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| May 2009 |
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CNPRC Director featured in KVIE TV documentary on Asthma
Dr. Dallas Hyde appeared as an expert guest on the television documentary "Breathless! Asthma in the Valley" which first previewed in May 2009 on KVIE television. The documentary can be viewed online at: http://www.kvie.org/programs/kvie/viewfinder/breathless/default.htm. |
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| January 2009 |
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Two UC Davis scientists receive state funding for innovative stem cell research
Excerpt from: UC Davis Newsroom
Two UC Davis School of Medicine stem cell researchers were among the nearly two dozen scientists who received research funding this week from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state's stem cell agency.
Alice Tarantal, professor of pediatrics and director of the Center of Excellence in Translational Human Stem Cell Research was awarded grant funds that support work that creates new techniques and capabilities for stem cell research. Tarantal's project is looking at new ways to utilize in vivo imaging technology currently used in clinical settings for stem cell research. |
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| January 2009 |
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Findings from University of California, California National Primate Research Center in gene therapy reported
Excerpt from: Gene Therapy Weekly, January 22, 2009
Researchers detail 'A heterologous DNA prime/protein boost immunization strategy for rhesus cytomegalovirus' new data in gene therapy. According to recent research published in the journal Vaccine, "A previous study in nonhuman primates demonstrated that genetic immunization against the rhesus cytomegalovirus phosphoprotein 65-2 (pp65-2) and glycoprotein B (gB) antigens both stimulated antigen-specific antibodies and CD8 T cell responses, and significantly reduced plasma viral loads following intravenous challenge with RhCMV. It was also noted in this study that weak CD4 T cell and neutralizing antibody responses were generated by DNA alone." |
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| December 2008 |
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PET/MRI COMBO IS #6 on Top Innovations List
Excerpt from: http://www.the-scientist. com/2008/12/1/45/1/
Simon Cherry and colleagues in the Department of Biomedical Engineering have been working for several years on PET scanners for small animals that could be used in laboratory research. One such machine is already in use at the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis. This technology has the potential to reduce the numbers of animals used in research, which supports the Three R’s of Animal Use in Research: reduction, refinement, and replacement.
Proc Natl Acad Sci 105:3705-10, 2008; Nat Med 14:459-65. 2008 |
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| September 2008 |
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Research by Dr. Golub at the CNPRC has shown that iron deficiencies in infants can lead to later behavioral problems similar to ADHD in humans, an delayed effect that had been overlooked in studies with human children.
Abstract from Wiley Interscience, 22 Sept 2008
Iron deficiency anemia and affective response in rhesus monkey infants
Mari S. Golub 1 *, Casey E. Hogrefe 2, Keith F. Widaman 3, John P. Capitanio 2,3
Infant iron deficiency anemia (IDA) occurs spontaneously in monkey populations as it does in humans, providing a model for understanding effects on brain and behavior. A set of 34 monkey infants identified as IDA (hemoglobin <11 g/dl) over a 5-year period at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) was compared to a set of 57 controls (hemoglobin >12 g/dl) matched for age and caging location. The infants had participated in a Biobehavioral Assessment conducted at 3-4 months of age at CNPRC that included measures of behavioral and adrenocortical response to a novel environment. IDA males differed from control males in two factors (activity, emotionality) derived from observational data taken on the first and second day of the exposure to the novel environment. In the male infants, IDA was associated with less restriction of activity in the novel environment on both days and less emotionality on the second day (p < .05). IDA males also displayed less response to approach by a human (human intruder test) than did control males. IDA females did not differ from controls. Adrenocortical response was not significantly affected. These findings may be relevant to functional deficits in human infants with IDA that influence later behavior.
© 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev. Psychobiol 51: 47-59, 2009
Protecting Researchers from Animal Rights Activists Governor Schwarzenegger Signs AB 2296
Dr. Dallas Hyde, Director of the California National Primate Research Center testified on behalf of AB2296 during the legislative hearings. His expertise and personal experiences of harassment clearly illustrated the severity of what researchers encounter while trying to fulfill their academic mission. |
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| August 2008 |
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Mr. Holder spoke at the CNPRC in the morning of August 8, 2008, and in the afternoon with a local radio station
Pro-research activist Tom Holder, to speak on campus
Excerpt from: http://blogs.ucdavis.edu/egghead/2008/08/05
Tom Holder, who helped found a student organization at Oxford University, England to counter animal rights protests, will give a talk at the California National Primate Research Center at noon on Friday, Aug. 8.
The Oxford group, "Pro-Test" organized in response to a mounting campaign of violence and intimidation against scientists by animal rights extremists. As a result, the university was able to complete work on a new biomedical sciences research laboratory.
Holder recently moved to the U.S. and has started a new organization, Speaking of Research. He is currently touring California talking to various groups. His visit could not be more timely, given the escalating series of incidents at UC campuses in recent months, culminating in Saturday’s fire bombings at the homes of UC Santa Cruz researchers. |
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| July 2008 |
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ADHD study puts money where the brain is: MIND Institute uses prizes to get - and measure - subjects' attention
By Sam McManis
Excerpt fromthe Sacramento Bee: Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008 - 12:00 am | Page 5L
You know the type. Heck, you may even be the type. You flit from task to uncompleted task, losing interest based on how hard and boring it becomes. You choose the task of least resistance and focus on immediate gains, not richer, more long-term rewards.
So who are you?
"Around tax time," says UC Davis MIND Institute researcher Julie Schweitzer, "that's everybody. That's when cleaning the toilet suddenly becomes really interesting."
But for people with ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – such distractedness is not mere procrastination. Though the hyperactive aspects of the condition are most obvious, inattention arguably can be more debilitating – especially for adults.
Schweitzer, an associate professor in UC Davis' department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is spearheading a study to determine what chemical functions in the brain trigger an ADHD person's compulsion to abandon tasks and exhibit "exploratory" behavior.
The study is zeroing in on a neurohormone called norepinephrine, which affects the part of the brain (the locus coreruleus) where attention is controlled. If the study backs Schweitzer's hypothesis – that if the norepinephrine can be regulated pharmacologically or behaviorally, it could help keep people on task – it could have significant implications in ADHD treatment.
Norepinephrine is far less known and less studied than dopamine, its fellow ADHD-intensive chemical. Firing rates for norepinephrine could explain why you ditch paying the bills halfway through to floss your teeth or rearrange your sock drawer.
The link between decision-making and neurochemistry is not entirely new, Schweitzer concedes, but it's been almost entirely focused on dopamine, the so-called "pleasure" hormone.
Studies centering on norepinephrine and task-to-reward difficulty have been conducted only on primates. And one such study on monkeys determined that measurement of pupil size of subjects can determine norepinephrine levels, meaning costly and invasive brain imaging is not needed.
Schweitzer sees norepinephrine uptake inhibitors working in tandem with existing ADHD medications that regulate dopamine levels. In May, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug for ADHD use, Strattera, which affects only norepinephrine levels.
"Potentially," Schweitzer says, "I think you will subtype the kinds of ADHD in children and adults according to the norepinephrine bursts vs. the dopamine. Then we'd have a better idea about the intervention that is most appropriate."
Commentary: Personality and Disease
Excerpt from July 15, 2008
http://blogs.ucdavis.edu/egghead/2008/07/15/commentary-personality-and-disease.
For the full text see: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity Volume 22, Issue 5, July 2008, Pages 647-650 Personality and Disease
John Capitanio is a Research Psychologist at UC Davis and Associate Director of the California National Primate Research Center. He was guest-editor of the special issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity on "Personality and Disease," published in July 2008.
For centuries, people have thought that particular personality characteristics may be associated with an increased likelihood of illness. New research, described in a special issue of the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, suggests some immunological links between personality and disease.
One study in this issue, reported by Anna Marsland at the University of Pittsburgh, shows that healthy, middle-aged, people who tend to be verbally and physically aggressive show higher levels of cytokines that promote inflammation — an immune process that has been linked to a variety of serious diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and even depression — compared to less antagonistic individuals. This effect was found even after controlling for the fact that antagonistic individuals also often practice poor health behaviors, such as smoking, alcohol use, and so on.
People with different personalities may be "built" differently.
Marsland’s results suggest the intriguing possibility that individuals with different personality characteristics are "built" differently. A separate study reported in this issue, by Erica Sloan at the University of California, Los Angeles, supports this idea.
Rhesus monkeys, like humans, show a personality characteristic that reflects their interest in friendly interaction with others. In monkeys this trait is called Sociability, which is similar to Extraversion in humans. Sloan studied the lymph nodes of monkeys that were high or low in Sociability. Lymph nodes are small organs scattered throughout the body, and are the places where the immune system fights infections. Lymph nodes also contain nerve fibers from the sympathetic nervous system, and Sloan found that animals that are low in Sociability had a higher density of nerve fibers than did animals that were high in Sociability. Nerve fibers release norepinephrine when individual are stressed, and norepinephrine generally suppresses the immune response to viral infections. This finding of a relationship between a personality characteristic and neural innervation of lymph nodes may help explain the well-known result that humans that are socially isolated and introverted typically have a higher risk of immune-mediated diseases, such as upper respiratory infections, allergy, and SIV/HIV infection. Together, the data presented in this special issue support the idea proposed recently by the former Director of NIH that, in the future, the most effective treatments may be those that are "personalized" based upon an individual’s genetic and behavioral characteristics. |
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| May 2008 |
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Animal testing is no cause for threats
By Stan Nosek and Dallas Hyde
Special to The Bee, Published: Saturday, May. 24, 2008
The Sacramento Bee published an op-ed piece by Vice Chancellor Stan Nosek and Dallas Hyde, director of the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis, on Saturday drawing attention to the increasing problem of "animal rights" activism and the steps the university is taking to protect medical researchers and their work.
Non-human primates vital for neuroscience research
May 16th, 2008 - 3:28 pm ICT by admin -
London, May 16 (ANI): Monkeys have long been used as an alternative to humans for various experimental studies, and now a new review has backed the concept by claiming that non-human primates will continue to be a significant, if small, part of neuroscience research.
In the review, researchers at California National Primate Research Center have said that studies dealing with non-human primates have greatly helped their understanding of the brain and will continue to be an important, if small, part of neuroscience research. The researchers believe that the role of non-human primates in studies of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, neurological complications of AIDS and stress is very important.
"The key contribution of these studies is based on the similarities between the brains of humans and those of non-human primates," Lancet quoted John P. Capitanio, UC Davis and associate director of the California National Primate Research Center, as saying.
One can easily see that the organisation and structure of Human and monkey brains is quite similar and that the animals display human like complex behaviour. But, according to Capitanio, the number of animals used will always be limited owing to various complicating factors, like the financial expense, ethical issues and the relative difficulty involving the breeding, which is different from other model animals such as rodents. He further added that all animal models do have their strengths and limitations, but animal models can help researchers understand body systems in the same way as a model building helps engineers and architects understand how a structure will work.
He explained it by giving example of the drug MPTP, which was first synthesized in an illegal drug laboratory and led to symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease in both humans and monkeys, but not in rats or mice, which lack a crucial enzyme.
And now, the researchers are studying monkeys treated with MPTP in order to have a better understanding of new treatments for Parkinson’s disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disease in people over 65.
"A model is not the real thing, but it can help you understand the real thing," said Capitanio.
The study is published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. (ANI) |
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| February 2008 |
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Autistic Behaviors In Offspring Linked To Prenatal Exposure To Maternal Antibodies
Excerpt from: 12 Feb 2008
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com and ScienceDaily, http://www.sciencedaily.com
New research from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute shows that an interaction between fetal brain cells and maternal antibodies could be linked with the repetitive behavior - also called stereotypies - that is characteristic of autism. While additional studies are needed to confirm the outcome, this result leads investigators to suspect that brain-directed antibodies during the prenatal period could be a causal factor for the disorder.
"Dr. Van de Water’s result implicated maternal immune system factors with at least one form of autism. We wanted to take that important finding a step further and find out if IgG exposure during pregnancy could cause the kinds of changes in social interactions or behavior we see in children with autism." David Amaral
Stereotypies and hyperactivity in rhesus monkeys exposed to IgG from mothers of children with autism. L.A. Martin, P. Ashwood, D. Braunschweig, M. Cabanlit, J. Van de Water, D.G. Amaral. Brain Behav Immun. Feb 7, 2008.
'Til Death Do Us Part
From: Scientific American Mind
February 2008 Issue, by Emily Anthes
When it comes to studying love, prairie voles, with their strong pair bonds, are the laboratory stars. Now researchers at the University of California, Davis, have established a primate model of monogamy they believe will be more relevant for uncovering the basis of human affection. The researchers used PET scans to examine brain activity in male titis, small South American monkeys that form strong relationships with their mates. They discovered that lone, unpaired male titis had strikingly different patterns of brain activity than males in long-term, monogamous partnerships did. These differences were primarily found in two brain circuits: one that is involved in reward processing and another that plays a part in social recognition. These circuits appear to be necessary for pair bonding, lead researcher Karen L. Bales says. And although the regions are also implicated in rodent models of monogamy, she believes titi monkeys will ultimately be more useful for studying human bonding and social disorders, such as autism. The scientists also studied the brains of lone males who had recently been introduced to new mates. Although the average of the monkeys’ brain activity was somewhere in between that of unpaired males and that of those in long-term partnerships, testing showed tremendous individual variation in both behavior and brain activity. "I think we can all identify with that as humans," Bales says. "It’s not always love at first sight." |
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| December 2007 |
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Antibacterial Chemical Disrupts Hormone Activities
Excerpt from: December 7, 2007, UCD Dateline
A new UC Davis study shows that a common antibacterial chemical added to bath soaps can alter hormonal activity in rats and in human cells in the laboratory -- and does so by a previously unreported mechanism. Called endocrine disruptors, or endocrine disrupting substances (EDS), such chemicals have been linked in animal studies to a variety of problems, including cancer, reproductive failure and developmental anomalies.
This is the first endocrine study to investigate the hormone effects of the antibacterial compound triclocarban (also known as TCC or 3,4,4’-trichlorocarbanilide), which is widely used in household and personal care products including bar soaps, body washes, cleansing lotions, wipes and detergents. Triclocarban-containing products have been marketed broadly in the United States and Europe for more than 45 years; an estimated 1 million pounds of triclocarban are imported annually for the U.S. market.
"This finding may eventually lead to an explanation for some rises in some previously described reproductive problems that have been difficult to understand." Dr. Bill Lasley, a UC Davis expert on reproductive toxicology and professor emeritus of veterinary medicine.
Consumers should not take this study as guidance on whether to use triclocarban-containing products, Lasley said. "Our mothers taught us to wash our hands well before the advent of antimicrobial soaps, and that practice alone prevents the spread of disease."
"Triclocarban enhances testosterone action: A new type of endocrine disruptor?", Bill Lasley, Jiangang Chen, Ki Chang Ahn, Nancy Gee, Mohamed I. Mohamed, Antoni Duleba, Ling Zhao, Shirley Gee and Bruce Hammock, Endocrinology, http://endo.endojournals.org/rep.shtml |
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