With obesity emerging as a leading health threat to Americans, it's easy to blame a couch-potato culture addicted to calorie-rich foods. But UC Irvine biologist Bruce Blumberg doesn't believe lifestyle alone explains this phenomenon; he thinks industrial pollutants play a part too. Blumberg (pictured) is among a growing number of researchers exploring how chemicals used in plastics, food packaging, pesticides and cosmetics can trigger dramatic increases in body fat. He has even coined a word for these compounds that corrupt the normal function of metabolic hormones: obesogens. While it's unclear to what degree these chemicals contribute to the obesity epidemic, what Blumberg and other researchers around the world are finding is troubling. In ongoing studies, Blumberg has identified how obesogens target signaling proteins to prompt a developing fetus to make more fat cells. This can have lifelong consequences, raising the likelihood of body fat accumulation as a person ages and making it more difficult to lose excess weight.   More »

The herbal extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant indigenous to the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia increased the lifespan of fruit fly populations, according to a UC Irvine study. Flies that ate a diet rich with Rhodiola rosea, an herbal supplement long used for its purported stress-relief effects, lived on an average of 10 percent longer than fly groups that didn’t eat the herb. Although this study does not present clinical evidence that Rhodiola can extend human life, the herb is a promising candidate for further anti-aging research, said Mahtab Jafari, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences and study leader. Study results appear in the online version of Rejuvenation Research.   More »

Mahtab Jafari, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UC Irvine, was named the 2007-08 recipient of the Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Teaching. The award is given out by the Irvine Division of the Academic Senate for outstanding contributions in the classroom. Jafari joined UCI in 2005 and developed the undergraduate major proposal for the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She has developed and taught two courses for this new major. In her research, Jafari studies anti-aging pharmacology.   More »