Extracellular vesicles (ECV) reflect the physiological or pathological condition of the cell. Therefore, they have emerged as potential biomarkers for disease. They can be obtained from a variety of body fluids, particularly urine that is an ideal source because it can be obtained in great quantities, recurrently and with minimal intervention. However, the characterization of urine ECV is challenging because the preparation is usually contaminated with soluble proteins. Therefore, approaches to obtain cleaner preparations of urine ECV are important for any proteomic analysis.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a method to produce stable pluripotent bovine embryonic stem cells.

In general, the risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is about 1 in 68, or 1.5%. But the risk goes up for families who already have a child with ASD. If a family has one child with ASD, the chance of the next child having ASD is about 20%. If the next child is a boy, the risk is 26%, whereas if it’s a girl the risk is 10%. About 47% of families had more than one child with autism. Currently if a child has a birth defect or autism, the emerging trend is to perform whole exome sequencing to identify genetic mutations. These mutations overwhelmingly come from the father, because sperm cells but not egg cells continue to divide through the life of adults. Once the mutation is identified, the diagnosis can be made in the child, but the parents are left wondering if this genetic event could recur in future children. Currently there is no genetic assessment of sperm available commercially, and no publications on the application of using sperm as a way to assess risk of childhood disease, nor is there a risk assessment available for couples that have had a child with a genetic disease due to de novo genetic mutation.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a method for measuring in-plane and out-of-plane surface magnetic properties of thin films.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a quantitative imaging method to detect and characterize liver inflammation for diagnosing a wide spectrum of nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLDs).

UCLA researchers in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have developed a platform and method for membrane-based water purification and desalination that combines operational flexibility with energy efficiency, allowing effective treatment and desalination of raw feed water over a wider range of solute concentrations and product recovery.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Chemistry have developed inorganic semiconductor nanosensors that measure membrane voltage.

Biomarkers to predict responsiveness to anti-CTLA-4 antibodies