La Jolla News Nuggets: Spirits Festival, home development, ‘Burnout Paradise,’ medical news, more

San Diego Spirits Festival set to return to La Jolla

A spirited annual festival is returning to La Jolla’s Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego later this month.

The 16th San Diego Spirits Festival, slated for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 27-28, will blend unlimited cocktail tastings with a scenic ocean backdrop and live entertainment including George Pajon from the Black-Eyed Peas and singer-songwriter Andrew Cole. More than 65 brands of alcohol beverages will be featured.

Hours are 2-6 p.m. Sept. 27, with tickets available for $85, and 1-5 p.m. Sept. 28, with tickets at $75. All guests must be 21 or older.

Find out more at sandiegospiritsfestival.com.

Camino de la Costa project plans three-story, 10,698-square-foot home

An application has been filed with the city of San Diego to demolish an approximately 4,100-square-foot two-story single-family house and build a new three-story residence of 10,698 square feet over a basement, with an 800-square-foot attached accessory dwelling unit, at 5979 Camino de la Costa in La Jolla.

The project is undergoing environmental review. A decision to approve or deny the application will be made by city staff without a public hearing.

La Jolla Playhouse to bring back ‘Burnout Paradise’

La Jolla Playhouse announced a week-long return of “Burnout Paradise,” a fan favorite of the 2025 WOW Festival in April.

“Burnout Paradise,” a production by Australian company Pony Cam, will run Wednesday through Sunday, Dec. 17-21, in the playhouse’s Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

In the production, four performers mount four treadmills. What begins as a simple wager between performer and audience becomes an often-humorous attempt to complete a series of escalating tasks that test the limits of the performers’ bodies, spirits and minds.

For tickets and more information, visit lajollaplayhouse.org.

AI and 3D printing aid in ‘groundbreaking’ personalized spine surgery, UCSD says

In a procedure that UC San Diego Health describes as “groundbreaking,” the health system became the first in the world to use a combination of artificial intelligence and 3D printing technology to make a fully personalized implant to accommodate a patient’s anatomy.

The anterior cervical spine surgery was performed in July. As part of such a procedure, an incision is made, the damaged disc is removed and adjacent vertebrae are fused together.

This case did not use a one-size-fits-all artificial disc but rather one that was customized using advanced imaging, AI and 3D printing.

Researchers believe such customization could be life-changing.

“This is the first step in a larger transformation,” said Joseph Osorio, associate professor of neurological surgery at the UCSD School of Medicine and a neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health. “We envision a future where every implant, whether for the spine, hip or knee, is made for one person, not mass-produced for everyone.”

Tijuana River pollution releases toxic gas into air, Scripps Oceanography research says

Newly published and peer-reviewed research from scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla says the millions of gallons of untreated sewage and industrial waste carried across the U.S.-Mexico border by the Tijuana River release large quantities of the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide into the air.

Scripps Oceanography scientists, joined by colleagues at UC Riverside, San Diego State University and the National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research, measured peak concentrations of hydrogen sulfide that were some 4,500 times what is typical for an urban area.

In addition, the paper identified hundreds of other gases released into the air by the polluted Tijuana River and its ocean outflow, which can contribute to poor air quality across the region.

The authors say they hope that putting numbers to an issue that residents of south San Diego County have raised for decades will help motivate government officials to address the polluted water at the root of the air quality problem. Such a solution would entail upgrading water treatment infrastructure on both sides of the border and updating policies governing the river’s management.

The study also calls for updating air quality models globally to account for emissions from polluted waterways.

Alcohol can open door to the liver for bad bacteria, UC San Diego study says

As scientists seek to curb the prevalence of alcohol-associated liver disease, a new study by UC San Diego’s School of Medicine may give them a clearer target.

According to UC San Diego Health, the study determined that chronic alcohol use interrupts the production of a cellular signaling protein that relegates gut bacteria to the gut itself. If it migrates to the liver, greater damage can occur.

Scientists hope the study may help in targeted drugs that can minimize liver damage alcohol can cause.

The findings, gleaned both from human liver biopsies and mice, were published in the medical journal Nature.