Investigadores de UCSD crean mascarillas con sensor para detectar exposición al COVID-19

Telemundo | January 22, 2021

Una pequeña cinta con una cápsula que se pega a los cubrebocas es lo más reciente que un grupo de investigadores de UCSD están desarrollando. Al activarla, esta detectaría en solo segundos si el usuario ha sido expuesto al COVID-19. "Al final del día cuando llegues a tu casa, aplastas la capsulita con la solución y esta va impregnar el cubrebocas y va cambiar de color si estuviste en contacto con alguien que tuvo el virus", dijo Palma Chávez, investigador de nanoingenería Jorge Arturo de UCSD quien colabora en el proyecto. Full Story

Researchers developing face mask sticker that can detect COVID-19 in droplets

ABC 13 | January 22, 2021

Researchers at UC San Diego's School of Engineering are working on a potential game changer in the fight against COVID-19. Researchers are looking into a new type of test that could detect the virus on your face mask. The test can be worn as a sticker on your mask. The sticker includes a little dye and works just like an at-home pregnancy test. As someone wears the sticker on the mask throughout the day, it collects droplets. At the end of the day, you can puncture the dye pack, and if the sticker changes color, that means you might have been exposed to the virus. Full Story

UC San Diego developing a facemask sensor that detects the novel coronavirus

The San Diego Union Tribune | January 21, 2021

The National Institutes of Health has awarded UC San Diego $1.3 million to develop a small, wearable sensor that can tell whether a person has the novel coronavirus or has been exposed to it by someone else. The lightweight sensor would be attached to facemasks to monitor for the presence of coronavirus-related molecules that appear in a person's breath and saliva. The "surveillance" test strip also would detect virus molecules expelled by someone else and possibly inhaled by the user of the mask. The user would squeeze the sensor to see if it turns color, denoting a positive readin Full Story

Sticker puts simple COVID-19 test on masks

ABC 10News | January 21, 2021

Researchers at UC San Diego's School of Engineering have created a way to test for COVID-19 risk that is so simple, it can be worn as a sticker on your mask. "This could have a really profound impact on the trajectory of the pandemic," says Jesse Jokerst, an Associate Professor at UC San Diego. The test uses a technique called "Colorimetric Detection," similar to home-pregnancy test indicators. The National Institutes of Health just gave UC San Diego $1.3 million to develop it and assess its accuracy to enhance surveillance of the disease around the world. Full Story

Facemask Sensor Being Developed at UCSD Could Help Detect COVID-19

NBC 7 | January 21, 2021

A team at UC San Diego School of Engineering is working to develop a sensor that would stick to your facemask and detect COVID-19 in your breath. ?Just imagine you would have a roll of stickers. And as you head out in the day you put one of these on, you would breathe through it. And at the end of the day you click a little blister pack and if the liquid changes colors that means you need to take some more action," explained UCSD NanoEngineering professor Jesse Jokerst. From there, you'd know to go and get a COVID-19 test to confirm infection. Full Story

UCSD researchers developing wearable COVID-19 test strip

Fox 5 San Diego | January 21, 2021

Researchers at UC San Diego are experimenting with new wearable test strips which change color if they detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a person?s breath or saliva. The strips can be affixed to any mask and are designed to detect ?protein-cleaving molecules? produced from an infection of the virus, the university said in a news release Thursday. While not intended to replace COVID-19 testing protocols, the project?s lead principal investigator Jesse Jokerst said they offer a ?surveillance approach,? similar to a smoke detector. Full Story

Hidden Costs In Faster, Low-Power AI Systems

Semiconductor Engineering | January 20, 2021

Researchers from the University of California at San Diego found that by blending high-accuracy results with low-accuracy results in the search for new materials, they actually improved the accuracy of even the highest accuracy systems by 30% to 40%. Full Story

Smartwatches can help detect COVID-19 days before symptoms appear

CBS News | January 15, 2021

Smartwatches and other wearable devices that continuously measure users' heart rates, skin temperature and other physiological markers can help spot coronavirus infections days before an individual is diagnosed. Devices like the Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit watches can predict whether an individual is positive for COVID-19 even before they are symptomatic or the virus is detectable by tests, according to studies from leading medical and academic institutions, including Mount Sinai Health System in New York and Stanford University in California. Experts say wearable technology could play a v Full Story

Accurate machine learning in materials science facilitated by using diverse data sources

Nature News and Views | January 14, 2021

A strategy for machine learning has been developed that exploits the fact that data are often collected in different ways with varying levels of accuracy. The approach was used to build a model that predicts a key property of materials. Full Story

Bioinformatic Study Underscores Contribution of Tandem Repeat Mutations in Autism

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | January 14, 2021

The genomes of children affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASD) harbor significantly more damaging tandem repeat mutations that are not present in their parents' genomes, a new study reports. Tandem repeats (TR) are sequences of two or more DNA base pairs repeated end to end on a chromosome. The new study titled "Genome-wide patterns of de novo tandem repeat mutations and their contribution to autism spectrum disorders," published in Nature, highlights the contributions of these understudied mutations in autism. Full Story

Autism Spectrum Disorder Study Finds Contribution From De Novo Tandem Repeat Mutations

Genome Web | January 14, 2021

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have higher numbers of de novo tandem repeat mutations than unaffected persons, suggesting a role for these repeats in the condition, a new study has found. Tandem repeats are known to be involved in other diseases, including, for instance, the autism-related fragile X syndrome. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, examined the prevalence of small ? between one and 20 base pairs in size - de novo tandem repeat mutations among individuals with autism. Full Story

Repeat DNA expands our understanding of autism spectrum disorder

Nature | January 13, 2021

Approximately half of the human genome, known as the repeatome, consists of repetitive DNA sequences. The repeatome includes more than one million tandem repeats - sections of DNA in which a sequence is replicated many times in tandem - whose biology remains largely unexplored. More than 50 diseases are known to be caused by expansion of a tandem-repeat sequence in a single gene; among them are Huntington?s disease and fragile X syndrome1. But less-well understood is the role of tandem repeats in polygenic diseases, which have more-complex genetic underpinnings. Full Story

Rising Ocean Acidity Levels Are Weakening Mussel Shells, UCSD Scientists Find

NBC 7 | January 12, 2021

UC San Diego scientists reported Monday that increased ocean acidity is weakening California mussel shells along the Pacific Coast, a result of rising levels of human-produced carbon dioxide. Full Story

How can self-driving cars 'see' in the rain, snow and fog?

AccuWeather | January 8, 2021

Similar to human drivers, self-driving vehicles can have trouble "seeing" in inclement weather such as rain or fog. The car's sensors can be blocked by snow, ice or torrential downpours, and their ability to "read" road signs and markings can be impaired. A team of electrical engineers at University of California San Diego is working on technology to help self-driving cars navigate safely in inclement weather. Full Story

New LiDAR-like Radar Could Help Self-driving Cars in Bad Weather

Inside Autonomous Vehicles | January 5, 2021

Self-driving cars may one day navigate safely in bad weather with the help of a new LiDAR-like radar system. Scientists have upgraded how well radar sees using existing radar technology. The key is using multiple radar sensors to increase the number of signals reflected back to them. "We're not using one high-beam light, but multiple low-beam lights to better light up objects," said researcher Dinesh Bharadia at the University of California San Diego. "That eliminates a whole lot of blindness." Full Story