Global warming speeds the extinction of species in various ways, including the spread of disease outbreaks. The mass extinction 17 years ago of the golden toad and the Monteverde harlequin frog of Costa Rica was analyzed by 14 scientists, including UCSB geographer Christopher J. Still, in a paper published earlier this year in Nature.

The researchers, using a database produced by 75 other researchers, decided that growth of a chytid fungus lethal to the amphibians was largely responsible for the die-off. Noting that frogs living in the highlands were most affected during warm years, the scientists said that higher temperatures increased water vapor in the tropics, enhancing cloud cover, and helping to nurture the fungi.

They also concluded, “large-scale warming is a key factor” in the decline of amphibians in many parts of the planet, and emphasized “climate-driven epidemics are an immediate threat to biodiversity.”

A widely available, immune system-suppressing drug may be effective in treating kidney disease, report UCSB scientists. The drug is rapamycin, also called sirolimus, which currently helps prevent rejection of transplanted kidneys.

An inherited kidney disease known as ADPKD, short for autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease, affects over 600,000 people in the U.S. Characterized by the proliferation of cysts that cause kidney failure in half of all patients under age 50, no treatment exists to prevent or slow cyst formation, explained molecular biologist Thomas Weimbs, director of the laboratory where the discovery was made. (See related story in Feb. 21, 2006 issue of 93106.)

The scientists studied the effects of rapamycin on mice and “were absolutely amazed,” said Weimbs. “The kidneys were smaller, had smaller cysts, and had retained their function.” Rapamycin, which inhibits a key protein that triggers the cysts, was originally discovered in the 1970s in soil from Easter Island.

A partnership of 25 scientists from the UCSB College of Engineering and The Burnham Institute and The Scripps Research Institute—both of La Jolla—have been awarded $13 million to use nanotechnologies to design new ways to detect, monitor, treat, and eliminate “vulnerable” arterial plaque, the probable cause of death from sudden cardiac arrest.

The multi-organizational team will build delivery vehicles that can be used to transport drugs, imaging agents, and nano-devices directly to locations where there is vulnerable plaque.

UCSB professors participating in the project include Matthew V. Tirrell, dean of the College of Engineering and professor of chemical engineering; Andrew N. Clelan associate professor of physics; Patrick Daugherty, associate professor of chemical engineering; Samir Mitragotri, assistant professor of chemical engineering; and Joseph Zasadzinski, professor of chemical engineering.