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UCSF Commentary: Tweet Your Way to Better Health

Twitter and other social media should be better utilized to convey public health messages, especially to young adults, according to a new analysis by researchers at UC San Francisco. The analysis focused on public conversations on the social media site Twitter around one health issue: indoor tanning

A Multipronged Attack on Ras

Researchers are approaching the problem of Ras from a number of different angles – directly attacking the protein, disrupting its signaling and focusing on targets that are triggered by Ras. Loh and Shannon, for example, are investigating the use of a class of drugs called MEK inhibitors for

Targeting a Key Driver of Cancer: Part III

Pharmaceutical, biotech and academic laboratories long have tried to develop drugs to target Ras. Most of the efforts focused on K-Ras, which is one of the three different types, or “isoforms,” of Ras – the others are N-Ras and H-Ras – and is the most “About 85 percent of Ras mutations involve K-Ras

Targeting a Key Driver of Cancer: Part II

When Todd and Lisa Harris were informed that their 10-month-old son Evan had cancer, they were very upset, but they also felt as if a weight had been lifted. “At least now we had an answer, albeit an extremely painful one, and a path forward,” Lisa Harris said about her son’s diagnosis at the time

How a Thick "Sugar Coating" on Cells May Drive Aggressive Cancers

A research team led by UC San Francisco scientists has shown that cancer-induced structural changes in a sugary coating ensheathing cells can promote mechanical interactions that fuel tumor growth and metastasis. Every introductory biology class teaches that cells are enclosed by a membrane, but it

Targeting a Key Driver of Cancer

It’s one of the most common and deadly drivers of cancer, yet it has eluded any drug therapies for decades. Now, buoyed by recent research breakthroughs and funding support, scientists are pushing harder than ever to target what has been called "undruggable." In the epic fight against cancer, a

Longer Telomeres Linked to Risk of Brain Cancer

New genomic research led by UC San Francisco scientists reveals that two common gene variants that lead to longer telomeres, the caps on chromosome ends thought by many scientists to confer health by protecting cells from aging, also significantly increase the risk of developing the deadly brain