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News Archive - Biological Sciences

San Diego Supercomputer Center’s ‘Comet’ Aids in Sickle Cell Research Discovery

December 10, 2020

Researchers recently created detailed simulations on the Comet system at the San Diego Supercomputer Center showing how these stiff red blood cells flow through blood vessels, deforming and colliding along the way.

When Strains of E.coli Play Rock-Paper-Scissors, It’s Not the Strongest That Survives

December 9, 2020

What happens when different strains of bacteria are present in the same system? Do they co-exist? Do the strongest survive? In a microbial game of rock-paper-scissors, researchers at the University of California San Diego’s BioCircuits Institute uncovered a surprising answer.

SDSC’s ‘Expanse’ Supercomputer Formally Enters Production

December 8, 2020

The San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego announced that its new Expanse supercomputer formally entered service for researchers following a program review by the National Science Foundation, which awarded SDSC a grant in mid-2019 to build the innovative system.

I See You: Honey Bees Use Contagious and Honest Visual Signal to Deter Attacking Hornets

December 7, 2020

UC San Diego-led research is providing new details about honey bees and their defenses against preying hornets. Using a common iPad, James Nieh and his colleagues conducted the first study that demonstrates that a contagious warning signal counters “fake news” in social insects.

SDSC Team Models Potential SARS-CoV2 Protease Inhibitors for COVID-19

December 1, 2020

A team of SDSC researchers recently created a pharmacophore model and conducted data mining of the database of drugs approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to find potential inhibitors of papain-like protease of SARS-CoV2, one of the main viral proteins responsible for COVID-19

Researchers Reveal Switch Used in Plant Defense Against Animal Attack

November 23, 2020

Researchers have identified the first key biological switch that sounds an alarm in plants when plant-eating animals attack. The mechanism will help unlock a trove of new strategies for improved plant health, from countering crop pest damage to engineering more robust global food webs.

National Science Foundation Forms Throughput Computing Partnership

November 9, 2020

SDSC is part of a multi-year NSF award to harness the computing capacity of thousands of computers assembled in a network of campus clusters to substantially cut time to science results that might take years to be done in days, especially for applications that are parallel by design.

UC Researchers Pioneer More Effective Method of Blocking Malaria Transmission in Mosquitoes

November 3, 2020

UC scientists have made a major advance in the use of genetic technologies to control the transmission of malaria parasites. They employed a strategy known as population modification, which uses a CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive system to introduce genes preventing parasite transmission in mosquitoes.

High-Performance Computing Aids in Predicting Oil Dispersal During Spills

October 21, 2020

Supercomputer simulations, done using resources at UC San Diego by researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), show how oil dilutes under specific conditions, which may lead to more effective countermeasures against large oil spills.

UC San Diego’s Susan Ackerman Elected to National Academy of Medicine

October 20, 2020

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has announced that University of California San Diego Professor Susan Ackerman, a pioneer in the study of homeostasis in developing and aging neurons, has been elected to membership in the prestigious organization.
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