The Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the World Wildlife Fund have agreed to participate in the “”Partnership of Sea Change,”” a combined effort to preserve marine life. The 10-year program will lobby for stronger ocean conservation policy while employing cutting-edge science to create new conservation solutions.
Funding for Scripps-WWF scholarships and training programs are also part of the project. One such academic opportunity is a degree program offered through the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conversation where students will work with Scripps and WWF staff to learn about the theoretical and real world aspects of conservation work.
The “”Partnership of Sea Change”” between Scripps and WWF represents the collaboration of elites in both the research and wildlife conservation fields. Scripps scientists are among the leading developers of ocean conservation designs, and WWF is actively sponsoring more marine preservation projects than any other organization in the world.
Ginkgo biloba found to preserve cognitive abilities
UCSD School of Medicine neuroscientists have released a study showing that ginkgo biloba, an over-the-counter herbal remedy, works to inhibit the cognitive decline of people suffering from multiple sclerosis.
Researchers drew conclusions from a six-month study in which they compared neuropsychological test scores between patients with mild multiple sclerosis who were given ginkgo biloba and a control group in which participants were given a placebo.
Of the 300,000 M.S. patients in the United States, cognitive problems involving concentration, memory and reasoning arise in about 50 percent of the cases. According to Jody Corey-Bloom, the study’s principal investigator, daily doses of 240 milligrams of the herb may aid mild M.S. sufferers in memory, attention and functioning.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic illness that attacks the central nervous system, often disabling the patient physically and mentally. The UCSD study is the first to seek out any relationship between M.S. and ginkgo biloba, which has also been shown to slow mental deterioration of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Study: Enzyme impedes childhood muscular dystrophy
UCSD School of Medicine researchers have found that muscle decay related to childhood muscular dystrophy is deterred in mice when supplemented with naturally occurring enzyme.
After researchers added an enzyme called CT GalNAc transferase to the skeletal muscle of mice, the muscle wasting associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, was brought to a standstill. Normally the enzyme occurs where muscle fibers receive nerve impulses. However, the UCSD team was able to relocate CTGalNAc transferase to the DMD-sensitive muscle area.
Paul Martin, the project’s senior author and an associate professor of neuroscience, envisions the eventual use of the enzyme in treatment for DMD; much like the way insulin is administered regularly to manage diabetes.
Caused by a mutation in a muscle fiber protein called dystrophin, DMD affects one in 5,000 children, and occurs almost exclusively in boys before they reach the age of six. The disease often leaves its sufferers in wheelchairs by age 12 and most DMD children die by their early twenties.
The study appeared in the April 16 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
UFW co-founder to speak as finale to Cesar Chavez month
Dolores Huerta, co-founder and emeritus vice president of the United Farm Workers, will speak Tuesday, April 30 at UCSD, capping the monthlong activities honoring labor and Chicano rights activist Cesar Chavez.
Huerta, who started the UFW in the 1960s alongside Chavez, will give a lecture titled “”Las Generaciones: Our Past, Present, and Future,”” serving as the finale to the educational and celebratory events that began April 5 as part of Cesar Chavez month. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Helen Edison Lecture Series and the UCSD Cesar E. Chavez Committee.
The event will take place in the Copley Auditorium at the Institute of the Americas at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
