News Archive

November 19, 2015 — In the pristine wilds of the Antarctic, the mysterious leopard seal rules the animal kingdom. This polar bear-sized top predator has razor-sharp canine teeth and the ability to greatly impact or even decimate entire communities of its prey, yet very few scientific studies have focused on this species.

November 18, 2015 — Scripps researchers are using sea urchins to help understand proteins relevant to human and environmental health. Cell proteins called drug transporters have been known to prevent chemotherapy and other drugs from reaching cells in disease treatment. Hamdoun and his colleagues have identified the role of a drug transporter in the early life stages of the sea urchin gut. The results could lead to new ways to target cancer drug resistance and to prevent birth defects.

November 18, 2015 — We, the UC San Diego administration, strongly denounce the Koala publication and the offensive and hurtful language it chooses to publish. The Koala is profoundly repugnant, repulsive, attacking and cruel. The UC San Diego administration does not provide any financial support for the Koala, and we call on all students, faculty, staff and community members to join us in condemning this publication and other hurtful acts.

November 17, 2015 — The San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego, is a recipient of this year’s HPCwire and Editors’ Choice Awards for its new Comet supercomputer that entered production earlier this year as a result of a National Science Foundation grant worth nearly $24 million including hardware and operating funds.

November 17, 2015 — Bioengineer Todd Coleman, from the University of California, San Diego, has been named one of 100 outstanding individuals for 2015 by The Root, a premier news, opinion and culture site for African-American influencers. Other names on the list include tennis player Serena Williams, ballerina Misty Copeland and hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar. Coleman will present his research at the prestigious TEDMED conference Nov. 18 to 20 in Palm Springs. His talk will focus on multi-disciplinary research and bioelectronics. He is part of the event’s Techno-Utopia session.

November 16, 2015 — In just the past few years, researchers have found a way to use a naturally occurring bacterial system known as CRISPR/Cas9 to inactivate or correct specific genes in any organism. CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing activity runs continuously, though, leading to risk of additional editing at unwanted sites. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Ludwig Cancer Research and Isis Pharmaceuticals demonstrate a commercially feasible way to use RNA to turn the CRISPR-Cas9 system on and off as desired — permanently editing a gene, but only temporarily activating CRISPR-Cas9.

November 16, 2015 — Qualcomm has helped shape UC San Diego into what it is today—a catalyst for economic, social and scientific impact. Most recently, Qualcomm established an endowment for the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy’s 21st Century China Program.

November 16, 2015 — Researchers at the University of California, San Diego report new insights into what nutrients fat cells metabolize to make fatty acids. The findings pave the way for understanding potential irregularities in fat cell metabolism that occur in patients with diabetes and obesity and could lead to new treatments for these conditions.

November 16, 2015 — Peptides promise to be useful drugs, but they're too easily digested and can’t get into cells without help. Chemists at UC San Diego now show that peptides can be protected from digestion and delivered into cells without changing their biological function by rearranging them into dense brushes.

November 16, 2015 — Christopher J. Kane, M.D., a renowned specialist in prostate cancer and an expert in robotic and other minimally invasive procedures for urologic surgery at the University of California, San Diego, has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Joseph D. Schmidt, MD Presidential Chair in Urology in the School of Medicine.