What causes us to sleep? The answer may lie not only in our brains, but in their complex interplay with the micro-organisms spawned in our intestines.

Researchers from USC and Duke report that the persistent “know-do gap” — where clinicians know guidelines but practice differently — is the primary driver of antibiotic overprescribing for pediatric diarrhea in India’s private sector, not lack of knowledge, point-of-sale profits, or stockouts of clinically recommended treatments such as oral rehydration salts (ORS).

Backed by the combined expertise of three USC schools, scientists are developing a new drug aimed at a previously unexplored biological target in Alzheimer’s disease, aided by an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The team, led by Hussein Yassine of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is investigating why some carriers of the APOE4 gene — the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s — develop dementia while others remain cognitively healthy. His lab has identified an enzyme that predisposes the brain to inflammation and the research team is now working to find a drug that can block it without harmful side effects. Their work points to an enzyme which breaks down protective omega-3 fatty acids in the brain and triggers damaging inflammation.

In a mouse model of liver transplantation, researchers have identified proteins that act as “protective switches” guarding the liver against damage occurring when blood supply is restored during transplantation, a process known as ischemia-reperfusion injury. But they also found the same protective relationship in discarded human livers that we deemed unsuitable for transplantation.