UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.
Stem cell transplant puts HIV in remission | Forbes
A woman appears to have been cured of HIV after receiving a transplant of stem cells from umbilical cord blood, scientists announced Thursday, joining only a handful of people cured from the virus following a novel procedure that increases the odds of making a cure available to a more racially diverse group of people than would be possible using other treatments. … Stem cells from umbilical cord blood are both more readily available and do not need to be matched as closely as adult cells do, which “broadens the opportunities” for people of all racial backgrounds living with HIV to be cured, said study coleader Yvonne Bryson, a professor of pediatrics at UCLA. (Also: Gizmodo, Medical Xpress, New Scientist and the Jerusalem Post.)
UCLA’s humanoid robot is ready for action | KCAL-TV
Grad students at UCLA have been focusing on making them move more efficiently, so the robots can complete their chores. While AI is driving the brains of these robots, UCLA professor Dennis Hong says the hardware needed is still playing catchup … “We’re inventing the future, and then sometimes there’s new technologies that we’re not anticipating that happen, and the development just skyrockets.”
Talking with UCLA professor, author Mona Simpson | Los Angeles Times
When I contact Mona Simpson about setting up an interview timed to the publication of her new novel, “Commitment,” she replies in what can only be described as an extraordinary way. She suggests we meet in Glendale, not far from where I live and very far from her Westside home. Simpson, whose 1986 debut novel, “Anywhere but Here,” launched both a notable career and a refreshingly clear-eyed way of writing about life in Los Angeles, also had a faculty meeting on the day in question at UCLA, where she has taught creative writing for almost 25 years.
Hundreds of L.A. schools may close next week | New York Times
Strikes, especially by teachers and education workers, have become increasingly common over the past six years, a reflection of widespread frustration with low wages, poor working conditions and growing income inequality, according to Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center.
Detaining kids for psychiatric exams in Florida | Washington Post
But of the six states that keep publicly available data on the practice — including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Wisconsin — Florida is an outlier, said David Cohen, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies the issue. In 2018, the state committed children nearly 16 times more often than Wisconsin, one of the less zealous users of its provision. “The public has no clue how much involuntary commitment and coercion are going on right now,” Cohen said.
Officer alleges claims of harassment ignored | Los Angeles Times
A Los Angeles police sergeant has sued the city, alleging she was targeted in an online harassment campaign because she reported her colleagues for sharing sexist memes … UCLA researchers are looking at the treatment of women across city departments, including the LAPD, as part of a broader study that is expected to be released this year.
Gov. Newsom aims to ‘transform’ San Quentin | CalMatters
California’s most high-profile prison will be reorganized as a rehabilitation center under a plan the governor announced Friday … “This is certainly new and it’s bold and it’s ambitious, and I am delighted to see it as a step in the right direction,” said Sharon Dolovich, director of the UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program. “There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip, so who knows how it’s going to roll out. But the idea is right.”
From drought to floods after record rain, snow | Los Angeles Times
The severity of that flooding remains to be seen, however, and depends on a variety of weather factors, experts say. “It’s going to happen, and the question is whether it happens quickly versus slowly,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said. “Is it gradual snowmelt — in which case the flood concerns would be mostly minor — or is it more rapid … in which case we could be talking about something in the major flood territory.”
Despite a wet winter, California water woes remain | New York Times
But data suggests that, over the past two decades, groundwater supplies in the Central Valley have decreased precipitously during dry periods and recovered only modestly during wet ones. “It’s sort of like if you are deep in debt,” said Alex Hall, the director of the Center for Climate Science at UCLA. Suddenly encountering a lot of cash “might help bring you out of debt,” he said, “but you still need to build up your savings.”
Alzheimer’s Association lobbies for expanded drug coverage | Reuters
While there is no direct connection between drug company support for the association and its activities, the campaign “falls in a gray area,” said Edward Walker, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) sociologist who studies how companies mobilize grassroots campaigns. “Sometimes it’s part of a long game strategy,” Walker said. “They fund a lot of these patient advocacy groups because they know that in the long term that support is going to come back around and help them.”
UCLA team’s device records single neurons in brain | Spectrum
A wearable device can, for the first time, record and activate single neurons in people as they walk around in a lab or clinic, according to a new study of 12 adults with epilepsy. The invention, called Neuro-stack, connects to the electrodes doctors already implant to monitor some people with epilepsy or other neurological conditions. “The Neuro-stack platform is designed as a research tool,” says study investigator Uros Topalovic, a postdoctoral scholar in Nanthia Suthana’s lab at the University of California, Los
