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The Alzheimer’s crunch

With jump in patients expected, new leader of clinical research operations at UCI MIND aims to accelerate translation of discoveries into effective treatments

<p>Comparison of high-resolution x-ray crystallography results (gray) with Foldit player-designed protein models (rainbow). Cross sections show detailed comparisons of the core sidechains. (Credit: Foldit, Advanced Light Source)</p>

Biological Science

Gaming Protein Structures: X-Ray Studies Confirm Power of Crowdsourcing

The unique ways in which proteins fold dictate their interplay with diseases and medicines, so understanding their twists and turns is key to designing effective drugs. While new drug design is serious work, discovering how proteins fold can be fun, too: A crowdsourcing game called Foldit allows players to try different fold configurations for points

Biological Science

Perfectly Raw or Cooked to Perfection? How Food Preparation Affects the Gut Microbiome

The gut microbiome undergoes rapid and dramatic changes in species composition and gene expression when the host switches between eating cooked or raw vegetables, according to a new study published in Nature Microbiology.

<p>Graphing MRI data using network curvature enabled scientists at UCI, the University of Minnesota and other institutions to identify areas of robustness and weakness in neural networks, with diagnosis and treatment implications for aging and autism.</p>

Biological Science

UCI data scientists use geometric concept to spot strong, weak points in neural networks

Biological Science

Dementia developments

Co-hosted by UCI MIND, the 30th Annual Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference will share recent discoveries

Biological Science

Trash to Treasure: Scientists Convert Municipal Waste to Biofuel Precursors

As the need for energy security grows, scientists are investigating nonfood biomass sources that can be used to create valuable biofuels and bioproducts. Among these sources is municipal solid waste (MSW) — in other words, trash that’s produced every day around the world in significant amounts.