In February 2, 2015, at the invitation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking comments on the optimal level of ozone for public health, Kent Pinkerton, PhD, Emeritus Scientist in the CNPRC Respiratory Diseases Unit and for the Inhalation Exposure Core, presented the scientific basis for requesting that national ozone standard be set at 60 ppb. He and co-researchers estimate that, at this level of ozone, between 5,210 and 7,990 premature deaths would be prevented annually. Dr.
High rates of non-vaccinated children throughout the US have reached critical numbers of vulnerable individuals, resulting in perfect conditions for a wildfire storm of measles infections, an easily preventable yet highly contagious disease. More than 120 confirmed cases of measles have been reported in 17 states and the District of Columbia in the most recent outbreak that started in December 2014 when at least 40 people who visited or worked at the California Disneyland theme park contracted measles.
According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, just 7.5 percent of all artificially fertilized embryos will go on to become live-born children.
What is potentially exciting about this research is the demonstration that the early stages of gut inflammation and damage can be intervened by the targeted probiotic bacteria.
The mucosal lining of the human gastrointestinal tract is on the frontline of immune defenses, crucial in preventing infection and controlling the spread of intestinal pathogens. It must respond rapidly to eradicate pathogens, while simultaneously maintaining tolerance to commensal bacteria.
In a study published in Science Translational Medicine on September 3, 2014, researchers from the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) at UC Davis and from UC San Francisco have shown that breast-and bottle-fed infant rhesus macaques develop different immune systems. Although the researchers expected that different diets would promote different intestinal bacteria, they were surprised at the extent to which these bacteria were found to shape immunologic development.
The newly completed CNPRC Respiratory Disease Center (RDC) held an open house on February 27th to celebrate the construction of a state-of-the-art 19,000 square-foot wet laboratory and inhalation exposure facility that will set the standards for research in respiratory health.
