Dr. Gerald Maguire and his colleagues from the University of California, Riverside have developed a stuttering therapy that uses vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitors. The safety of VMAT2 inhibitors have been established given that small molecule VMAT2 inhibitors are approved for the treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders. Treatment of stuttering provides relief from symptoms like facial tics, lip tremors, excessive blinking, facial tension, and frustration when attempting to communicate. This therapy holds promise for improving on the current treatments for both children and adults. Fig 1 shows the mechanism of action of VMAT2 inhibitors where in  a) VMAT2 sequesters dopamine in presynaptic vesicles and then b) VMAT2 inhibitors block vesicular storage of dopamine. Stuttering may be caused by high dopamine levels and VMAT2 inhibitors would decrease dopamine levels to treat stuttering.  

This invention identifies that tumor-specific T cells are susceptible to immunotherapy induced IFN-gamma toxicity in low tumor burden circumstances, and provides a novel method for rescuing those tumor-reactive T cells and anti-tumor immunity through disruption of IFN-gamma signaling.

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha is a transcriptional regulator of the adaptive response to hypoxia. When activated under hypoxic conditions, it can turn on over 40 genes involved in a variety of physiological activities. The dysregulation or alteration by mutation can lead to pathophysiology in areas of energy metabolism, cancer, cell survival and tumor invasion.

Professor Bir Bhanu and colleagues at the  University of California, Riverside, have  developed a robust vehicle classification system based  on video images from the rear-side view of a vehicle. This  system classifies a vehicle into one of four  classes: sedan, pick-up truck, SUV/minivan,  and unknown. The system validates detected moving objects by a simple frame differencing approach. Table I shows the false alarm percentages over the different methods used to classify vehicles. Table II shows that the UCR method has the highest accuracy when compared to other known methods.       Figure 1 is the Dynamic Bayesian Network structure created by extracting data from surveillance. In conjunction with the car being spotted the Left Tail Light (LTL), License Plate (LP), Right Tail Light (RTL), and Rear Dimensions (RD) are identified simultaneously and set within the Dynamic Bayesian Network to accurately classify and identify the vehicle.    

UCLA researchers in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Material Science and Engineering, have developed a single-atom tailoring method to boost the electrocatalytic activity of platinum-based catalysts with low loss of generatable current.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have developed a user-friendly analytical instrument that measures electrochemical impedance at rates many times faster than currently available devices and with comparable accuracy.

Prof. Huinan Liu and her colleagues at the University of California, Riverside have developed a bioresorbable nutrient-based magnesium alloy that may be used for repairing fractured bones. This alloy offers comparable mechanical strength to current metal implants, and safely degrades in vivo to natural metabolic products with a controlled degradation rate. In addition, the degradation products of this alloy induce bone regrowth and promote fracture healing. Fig. 1: Illustration of bioresorbable nutrient-based magnesium alloys for repairing bone fractures.  

Currently, renewable fatty acids are obtained solely from plant oils. Medium chain fatty acids (C8-C14) are typically sourced from coconut and palm oil, whereas longer chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids are typically sourced from tallow, soy, corn or sunflower oil. Fatty acids are widely used for food, personal care products, industrial applications (e.g., lubricants, adhesives, detergents and plastics), as well as increasingly as biofuels. The demand for renewable fatty acids is rising and expanding. Given the current understanding of biological pathways it becomes possible to utilize other organisms, especially microorganisms, for the production of renewable chemicals such as fatty acids.