News

Injectable Gel Could Repair Tissue Damaged by Heart Attack

University of California, San Diego researchers have developed a new injectable hydrogel that could be an effective and safe treatment for tissue damage caused by heart attacks.

February 21, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

UCSD Uses Heat Energy to Fix Odd Heart Beat

UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center is now offering patients with atrial fibrillation the breakthrough benefits of heat energy, or radio frequency waves, to irreversibly alter heart tissue that triggers an abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia.

February 16, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

The Splice of Life: Proteins Cooperate to Regulate Gene Splicing

In a step toward deciphering the “splicing code” of the human genome, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have comprehensively analyzed six of the more highly expressed RNA binding proteins collectively known as heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoparticle (hnRNP) proteins.

February 16, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

Express Yourself: How Zygotes Sort Out Imprinted Genes

Researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Toronto Western Research Institute peel away some of the enduring mystery of how zygotes or fertilized eggs determine which copies of parental genes will be used or ignored.

February 16, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

3 UC San Diego Faculty Members Named Sloan Foundation Research Fellows

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today named three faculty members at the University of California, San Diego recipients of its prestigious research fellowship, given to promising young scholars at the early stage of their research careers.

February 15, 2012Awards, On Campus, Science and Engineering, Social Sciences

Lava Formations in Western U.S. Linked to Rip in Giant Slab of Earth

Like a stream of air shooting out of an airplane’s broken window to relieve cabin pressure, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego say lava formations in eastern Oregon are the result of an outpouring of magma forced out of a breach in a massive slab of Earth. Their new mechanism explaining how such a large volume of magma was generated is published in the Feb. 16 issue of the journal Nature.

February 15, 2012Science and Engineering, SIO

InterDigital and Calit2 Launch InterDigital Innovation Challenge

InterDigital (NASDAQ: IDCC) and the University of California, San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) today announced the launch of the InterDigital Innovation Challenge (I²C), an engineering competition that aims to discover breakthroughs in advanced wireless technologies.

February 15, 2012General, Science and Engineering, Students

Will Anti-Arrhythmic Drug Beat Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of death in the United States.  This form of heart attack kills 325,000 people every year, representing one death every two minutes. Almost all SCA victims die before they even reach a hospital.

February 14, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

Could “Love Hormone” Help Treat Depression?

Gazing into your lover’s eyes isn’t only romantic; it also releases a brain chemical called oxytocin that strengthens social bonds in a variety of species.  For some people who suffer from depression, the so-called “hormone of love” might hold out hope. Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine are conducting a clinical trial to study whether oxytocin – the brain hormone released with touches, hugs, or when a mother and her newborn baby bond – might help patients with depression.

February 13, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

Clinical Trial Teaches Binge Eaters to Toss Away Cravings

Of 190 million obese Americans, approximately 10-15 percent engage in harmful binge eating. During single sittings, these over-eaters consume large servings of high-caloric foods. Sufferers contend with weight gain and depression including heart disease and diabetes.

February 09, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

New Method Makes Culture of Complex Tissue Possible in any Lab

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new method for making scaffolds for culturing tissue in three-dimensional arrangements that mimic those in the body. This advance, published online in the journal Advanced Materials, allows the production of tissue culture scaffolds containing multiple structurally and chemically distinct layers using common laboratory reagents and materials.

February 09, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Faculty Elected to National Academy of Engineering

Three faculty members in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Peter C. Farrell, founder, chairman and CEO of ResMed, and a member of the Council of Advisors of the Dean of the Jacobs School, also was elected to the academy.

February 09, 2012Awards, General, On Campus, Science and Engineering

Electrical Engineers Build “No-Waste” Laser

A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, “thresholdless” laser that funnels all its photons into lasing, without any waste.

February 09, 2012General, Science and Engineering

Engineers Find Inspiration for New Materials in Piranha-proof Armor

It’s a matchup worthy of a late-night cable movie: put a school of starving piranha and a 300-pound fish together, and who comes out the winner?

February 08, 2012General, Science and Engineering

UC San Diego Professor Kim Barrett Selected President-Elect of the American Physiological Society

Kim E. Barrett, PhD, professor of medicine and dean of graduate studies at the University of California, San Diego, will become president-elect of the American Physiological Society (APS).

February 07, 2012Awards, Health, On Campus, Science and Engineering

Google Earth Ocean Terrain Receives Major Update

Internet information giant Google updated ocean data in its Google Earth application this week, reflecting new bathymetry data assembled by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, NOAA researchers and many other ocean mapping groups from around the world.

February 07, 2012Science and Engineering, SIO

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center Offers New Hope for Deadly Brain Tumor

Jim Black is fighting the meanest, most aggressive, most common kind of brain tumor in the United States: recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).  In the United States, each year, approximately 10,000 patients are affected by GBM.  Now, a novel investigational device – available only at clinical trial sites – is offering new hope to these patients.

February 03, 2012General, Health, Science and Engineering

Heat and Cold Damage Corals in Their Own Ways, Scripps Study Shows

Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While ocean warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold events can also cause large-scale coral bleaching events.

February 02, 2012Science and Engineering, SIO

San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering Presents Countywide Events March 17-24

Interactive demonstrations and exciting speakers, ranging from skateboard legend Tony Hawk to icon of engineering Irwin Jacobs, get students excited about science and engineering

January 31, 2012Events, General, Science and Engineering

How Do You Fight Fire in Space? Experiments Provide Some Answers

Improving fire-fighting techniques in space and getting a better understanding of fuel combustion here on Earth are the focus of a series of experiments on the International Space Station, led by a professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego.

January 31, 2012General, Science and Engineering

Older stories (prior to October 2011)