Sarah Banks, Ph.D. explores why Alzheimer's disease affects women differently than men, emphasizing distinct patterns in tau pathology, cognitive testing bias, and treatment response. She explains how women tend to show a rapid buildup of tau during early cognitive decline, which may contribute to their higher prevalence of Alzheimer's. Banks also highlights how common diagnostic tools may overlook symptoms in women and how approved treatments may offer less benefit for them. Her research at UC ...
Aug 07, 2025•5 min
Louise Laurent, M.D., Ph.D., presents new insights into placental biology using cutting-edge molecular and imaging technologies. As part of the NIH-funded Human Biomolecular Atlas Program, her research focuses on mapping the structure and function of the placenta across gestation. By combining bulk RNA sequencing, single-cell analysis, spatial transcriptomics, and imaging mass cytometry, Laurent and collaborators identify key differences in cell types and gene expression associated with pregnanc...
Aug 04, 2025•20 min
Jennifer Anger, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. investigates interstitial cystitis (IC), also known as painful bladder syndrome, with a focus on improving care through research on sex, gender, and health disparities. Using Veterans Affairs (VA) data, Anger challenges the outdated belief that IC predominantly affects women. She explores how comorbidities such as PTSD and depression, common among veterans, influence bladder pain, and examines how factors like exercisJennifer Anger, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. uses VA...
Jul 28, 2025•5 min
Science communication expert Lisa Warshaw and scientist Rob Signer, Ph.D., offer a practical guide to turning complex research into clear, memorable stories. They explain why strong openings, simple messages, vivid analogies, and visual storytelling are essential to making science resonate. The talk includes tips on avoiding jargon, using soundbites effectively, and preparing for high-stakes moments like media interviews and conference Q&As. Warshaw draws on her experience in global biotech ...
Jul 28, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Gladys (Sandy) Ramos, M.D. outlines the comprehensive maternal care services at UC San Diego, emphasizing clinical excellence, innovation, and community impact. She highlights programs in diabetes and pregnancy, high-risk obstetrics, postpartum and HIV care, and maternal mental health. Ramos describes cutting-edge capabilities in fetal and placental imaging, including expertise in placenta accreta and genetic counseling. A fetal surgery program is launching soon, expanding access to specialized ...
Jul 27, 2025•7 min
UCLA’s Avishek Adhikari, PhD, presents new research on the role of GABAergic neurons in the brain’s periaqueductal gray (PAG) region. Previously studied for their involvement in fear and defensive behaviors, these neurons were found to promote food-seeking behavior when activated—even in fully fed mice. Using calcium imaging and optogenetics, Adhikari’s team discovered that these neurons are active during food approach but suppressed during eating. The effect is stronger for high-value foods lik...
Jul 25, 2025•59 min
Sheng Zhong, Ph.D. pioneers technologies that advance women’s reproductive health. Zhong develops a minimally invasive method to analyze extracellular RNA secreted by embryos during IVF. By sequencing tiny samples of spent culture media, they generate comprehensive RNA profiles and use machine learning to identify biomarkers that predict embryo quality with accuracy comparable to traditional imaging. This breakthrough offers a gentler, data-driven alternative for assessing embryo viability, with...
Jul 24, 2025•4 min
Join Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D. for a guided meditation. Follow along as he teaches simple breathing techniques and short practices designed to build focus and calm the nervous system. Series: "Stein Institute for Research on Aging" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40783]
Jul 21, 2025•9 min
Andrea Z. LaCroix, Ph.D. presents major public health trends affecting women across the lifespan, from rising maternal mortality and chronic disease risks linked to pregnancy complications to the ongoing need for improved menopause care. She highlights innovative research, including digital tools for menopause education, studies on cancer survivorship, and efforts to predict healthy aging using epigenetic clocks and physical activity data. LaCroix shows how decades of research continue to shape ...
Jul 21, 2025•17 min
Emily Lukacz, M.D., M.A.S. presents research from two national networks focused on female pelvic floor disorders. One project studies bladder health in over 3,000 women to identify factors that support wellness rather than disease. Another conducts large-scale clinical trials, including a randomized study comparing two minimally invasive treatments for stress urinary incontinence. Additional trials include the TULIP study, which evaluates postpartum urinary symptom treatments using an app-based ...
Jul 14, 2025•4 min
In this Osher lecture, Kuiyi Shen, Professor or Art History, Theory and Criticism at UC San Diego, gives a historical overview of Japanese art during the zenith of court culture. Series: "Osher UC San Diego Distinguished Lecture Series" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 40870]
Jul 12, 2025•58 min
The human body has traits that evolved at different times, from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago, each bringing health benefits and risks. Multicellularity enabled organs and cancer. The immune system defends us but can cause inflammation. Breastfeeding supports infant health but relates to breast cancer risk. Menstruation and invasive placentas improved reproduction but led to pain and cancer risks. Human-specific traits like bipedalism and aging brought new issues like back pain and childbir...
Jul 06, 2025•1 hr 16 min
Humans have long been exposed to three main types of smoke: from early domestic fires, modern wildfires, and more recently, tobacco and fossil fuel pollution. All release tiny particles from partly burned plants, containing harmful chemicals like nitrogen oxides and carcinogens. These particles raise risks for lung cancer, dementia, and even childhood obesity. Studies show that air pollution can disrupt brain chemistry, increase Alzheimer’s-related proteins, and activate stress-related genes (NF...
Jul 03, 2025•18 min
What paradoxes arise when victims of related persecution tell their stories next to, and after, each other? This question is at the heart of Ari Joskowicz’s highly acclaimed book “Rain of Ash,” which examines the unlikely entanglement of the histories of Jews and Romani people—the only two racialized groups the Nazis targeted for wholesale extermination. Joskowicz, professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, explores the encounters between Jews and Romani people on the killing fields o...
Jun 28, 2025•1 hr 6 min
The human gut microbiome is tightly linked our health. Our analyses of diverse human populations from around the globe, ranging from hunter-gatherer to industrialized, show that the gut microbiome is profoundly influenced by lifestyle. With a large collaborative team, we conducted deep metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiomes of Tsimane horticulturalists from Bolivia and compared them to those of Hadza hunter-gatherers from Tanzania. We are also investigating whether diet and microbial ther...
Jun 27, 2025•20 min
Frank Silva talks with writer and educator Eduardo Corvera about the power of reading, writing, and the humanities. They explore how stories help us understand ourselves and the world around us. Corvera shares insights on teaching, the writing process, and why being honest and curious is essential for young writers. It’s a thoughtful and inspiring conversation about creativity, literature, and finding your own voice. Series: "Education Channel" [Humanities] [Education] [Show ID: 40620]
Jun 24, 2025•38 min
The essence of Being Human is the practice of Biocultural Reproduction (BCR). BCR is defined as the set of marriage and kinship based rules for extra-maternal cooperation in the production, feeding, and care of offspring. Human evolution theory needs to explain how people successfully combined a vastly extended period of offspring dependency and delayed reproduction with helpless newborns — with large heads and much body fat (even with problems giving birth) -- a short duration of breast-feeding...
Jun 23, 2025•18 min
In this thoughtful presentation, Professor Emerita Laura Rendón, Ph.D., of the University of Texas - San Antonio, talks about her advocacy work in student preparation, access, and success. Her research has been published in education research journals and informed policies and practices within higher education that have transformed the lives of students. As the creator of the Validation Theory, she has helped redefine how we support and uplift students. Rendón is joined by Carolyn Sandoval, Ph.D...
Jun 21, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most important challenges of modern medicine worldwide. They are often attributed to maladaptations of our body to our peculiar form of locomotion, upright bipedalism. This lecture will explore the evolutionary origin of major musculoskeletal disorders such as back problems and hip joint osteoarthritis. I will show that these problems represent a relatively recent phenomenon, occurring only during the last few decades, and thus are unrelated to our skelet...
Jun 20, 2025•20 min
Phenotypic variation within the skeleton has biological, behavioral, and biomedical functional implications for individuals and species. Thus, it is critical to understand how genomic, environmental, and mediating regulatory factors combine and interact to drive skeletal trait development and evolution. One way to do this is by studying skeletal diseases that disrupt skeletal function — like osteoarthritis (OA) which is a chronic disorder characterized by the degradation of cartilage and underly...
Jun 16, 2025•22 min
The rate of cancer and cancer malignancy differ greatly among mammalian species. The placental – maternal interface is also highly variable between placental mammals. This lecture will discuss recent advances that suggest that there is a causal connection between the evolution of placental biology and the biology and rate of cancer malignancy. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 40694]
Jun 13, 2025•20 min
Experts discuss recent advances in how maternal health and immune function during pregnancy affect infant development and long-term outcomes. Research focuses on immune adaptations, complications like preterm birth, and neuroimmune pathways, using techniques such as mass cytometry, spatial proteomics, and chemogenetics to identify biomarkers and mechanisms that guide prevention and treatment strategies. Sandy Ramos, M.D. Clinical Landscape and OGRS Opportunities Louise Laurent, M.D.,Ph.D. Single...
Jun 12, 2025•49 min
Explore key aspects of aging and menopause, focusing on women’s health and how biological changes impact overall well-being. Experts discuss current research on healthy aging, including the role of physical activity, brain health, and hormone changes during menopause. They highlight how sex differences affect diseases like Alzheimer’s and emphasize the importance of personalized approaches to treatment and prevention. The presentation also underscores ongoing studies and resources aimed at impro...
Jun 11, 2025•46 min
Menstruation is the cyclical shedding of the endometrium triggered by falling progesterone levels. Menstruation is a rare trait found in less than 2% of mammals and likely evolved independently at least 4 times. Why do some mammals menstruate while most do not? The leading hypothesis is that menstruation occurs as a nonadaptive consequence of spontaneous decidualization of the endometrium, which evolved to increase biosensoring of embryo quality. While the trait of spontaneous decidualization (a...
Jun 09, 2025•24 min
William Lowry, Ph.D., discusses manipulating metabolic pathways in hair follicle stem cells to inhibit tumorigenesis. By blocking glycolysis and glutamine lysis simultaneously, they observed tumor regression, highlighting the complex interplay between metabolism and cancer. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 39256]
Jun 05, 2025•43 min
Experts highlight innovative research and clinical advances in fertility and infertility. Speakers share new ways to improve IVF outcomes using liquid biopsy and RNA analysis, aiming to predict embryo quality without invasive tests. They also explore how imaging technologies can better detect and monitor reproductive cancers, helping tailor treatments for conditions like ovarian and cervical cancer. Throughout, there's a focus on addressing health disparities, improving care for all genders, and...
Jun 04, 2025•28 min
Pressures of life on Earth experienced by our ancestors – as multicellular beings, as hosts to parasites, and as home to microbes – shaped the evolved structure and function of our immune systems. Some of the traits favored by natural selection have conferred resistance against infections while opening vulnerabilities to autoimmune diseases. I will illustrate why analysis of the deep-time origins of mammalian immune systems reveals general principles of optimal defense and helps to explain why h...
Jun 02, 2025•19 min
Curious about the secret to staying young? Rob Signer shares insights into how our bodies age, focusing on the role of stem cells and a critical protein called HSF1 that helps them cope with stress. Signer explores the delicate balance of keeping these cells healthy without increasing cancer risk and highlighted some promising progress in enhancing the cells' ability to manage waste. Series: "Excerpts" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40775]
May 30, 2025•8 min
The human body has traits that evolved at different times, from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago, each bringing health benefits and risks. Multicellularity enabled organs and cancer. The immune system defends us but can cause inflammation. Breastfeeding supports infant health but relates to breast cancer risk. Menstruation and invasive placentas improved reproduction but led to pain and cancer risks. Human-specific traits like bipedalism and aging brought new issues like back pain and childbir...
May 28, 2025•8 min
Cancer is normal development spun out of control. It is the great plasticity and power of development, without the overarching controls that guide normal development toward an integrated adult form. Instead, whenever a newly developed kind of tissue acquires the ability to survive, grow, and resist control, there is nothing to stop it. That may be why normal adult cells are often terminally differentiated into a restricted cellular program. And it may be why wound healing, which releases the res...
May 28, 2025•17 min
