The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
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The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics incorporates scientists fully in the process of understanding ethical, legal, and societal impacts of the applications of their genetic and genomic research. We aim to educate the public to understand, discuss, and make informed decisions about issues in biotechnology, genetics and genomics.
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
3M ago
The UCLA Heat Lab, directed by ISG faculty Bharat Venkat, is featured in a story on NBC4 for their research on LA food trucks.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/tracking-hot-temperatures-inside-food-trucks/3294210/
By Lolita Lopez • Published December 19, 2023 • Updated on December 20, 2023
Excerpt:
Hot temperatures inside food trucks is the focus of a study recently released by the UCLA Heat Lab. Jason Sutedja is a Senior at UCLA and part of the research group. He explains they placed sensors in three different locations, inside several food trucks serving universi ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
7M ago
By Ellie Silverman and Jasmine Hilton
Excerpt:
“…The study analyzed 180 in-custody deaths in 10 Maryland detention centers and found that about half of those people died within the first 10 days of incarceration. And for those whose deaths were deemed to be from natural causes, the report shows they died nearly three decades younger than the state life expectancy.
The authors say the study raises questions about whether some of those who died in custody had medical or mental health issues that were overlooked, ignored or not treated properly, or suffered injuries that contributed to thei ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
7M ago
[Excerpt]
“July delivered an irrefutable argument about the extent of climate change: A recent analysis suggests that 81% of the Earth’s population lives in places that experienced extreme heat attributable to global warming sometime during the month. Extreme heat is not just uncomfortable; it can be debilitating, and even deadly.
However, these effects aren’t felt equally. Many people labor under conditions of extreme heat — sorting boxes in sweltering warehouses, delivering packages or working in fields — so that others don’t have to. This is thermal inequa ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
8M ago
[Excerpt]
“July delivered an irrefutable argument about the extent of climate change: A recent analysis suggests that 81% of the Earth’s population lives in places that experienced extreme heat attributable to global warming sometime during the month. Extreme heat is not just uncomfortable; it can be debilitating, and even deadly.
However, these effects aren’t felt equally. Many people labor under conditions of extreme heat — sorting boxes in sweltering warehouses, delivering packages or working in fields — so that others don’t have to. This is thermal inequa ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
9M ago
[Excerpt]
“The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for many parts of the U.S. this week. Parts of LA, like the San Fernando Valley, are headed for triple-digit temperatures this weekend.
Heat negatively affects some people more than others — UCLA Heat Lab Director Bharat Venkat looks at it as “thermal inequality.”
It’s simple to advise people to turn on air conditioning, but in low-income communities of color, where the percentage of renters is high, A/C availability is low, he points out. Even if A/C is an option, people hesitate to use it because ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
1y ago
March 25, 2023 by ISG faculty, Bharat Venkat
[Excerpt]
Since the time of the Greek physician Galen, knowing what causes a disease has been taken to be a critical step toward finding its cure (an idea we still hold dear in our time of mysterious syndromes and phantom pains). But a cure that specifically targeted the rod-shaped bacterium that causes tuberculosis was slow to come.
…
Despite advances in chemotherapy, the global treatment of tuberculosis remains on shaky ground. Antibiotics have never been able to cure everyone suffering from tuberculosis, and even someone who has been declared cur ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
1y ago
The NY Times published a guest Opinion Essay by ISG faculty Danielle Carr‘s article “Mental Health is Political”.
“What if the cure for our current mental health crisis is not more mental health care?
The mental health toll of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the subject of extensive commentary in the United States, much of it focused on the sharp increase in demand for mental health services now swamping the nation’s health care capacities. The resulting difficulty in accessing care has been invoked widely as justification for a variety of proposed solutions, such as the profit-driven growth o ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
2y ago
Image by Science Magazine
Congratulations to ISG Director Aaron Panofsky and ISG Associate Professor Nanibaa’ Garrison for co-authoring their latest article in the April 2022 edition of Science journal magazine, “Getting Genetic Ancestry Right for Science and Society,” in which Panofsky and Garrison examine genetic ancestry and moving away from race in genetic research.
Abstract
Glaring health disparities have reinvigorated debate about the relevance of race to health, including how race should and should not be used as a variable in research and biomedicine (1). After a long history of race b ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
2y ago
The Intercept recently published two articles featuring Nicholas Shapiro’s ongoing research on carceral ecologies. In addtion, the same publication produced an interactive map using data Shapiro and his lab collected titled Climate and Punishment.
MIGRANTS FLEEING HURRICANES AND DROUGHT FACE NEW CLIMATE DISASTERS IN ICE DETENTION
Angel Argueta Anariba fled a 1998 hurricane in Honduras, only to get lashed by one while detained by ICE two decades later.
by Alleen Brown |. March 31 2022, 7:45 a.m | The Intercept
TRAPPED IN THE FLOODS
With Floodwaters Rising, Prisoners Wait for Help in Floating Fe ..read more
The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
2y ago
Congratulations to ISG Faculty member Hannah Landecker for co-authoring her recent article, “Physiological costs of undocumented human migration across the southern United States border.”
Abstract
Political, economic, and climatic upheaval can result in mass human migration across extreme terrain in search of more humane living conditions, exposing migrants to environments that challenge human tolerance. An empirical understanding of the biological stresses associated with these migrations will play a key role in the development of social, political, and medical strategies for alleviating adve ..read more