News Archive

August 20, 2015 — An international team of scientists headed by biologists at UC San Diego has discovered that an important class of stem cells known as human “induced pluripotent stem cells,” or iPSCs, which are derived from an individual’s own cells, can be differentiated into various types of functional cells with different fates of immune rejection.

August 19, 2015 — The 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal last April was the first example of a large continental “mega-thrust” rupture that was captured by a GPS network that measures ground motion. The Himalayas are the most seismically active, above-water mountain range on Earth.

August 18, 2015 — The Clinical and Translational Research Institute (CTRI) at University of California, San Diego has received a five-year Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) for approximately $52 million from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science, part of the National Institutes of Health.

August 17, 2015 — The University of California, San Diego’s 12th annual Dinner in the Library will take place Friday, Sept. 18 in the university’s iconic Geisel Library building. The event, which is open to the public, will celebrate the theme “Building for the Future,” with proceeds supporting the UC San Diego Library’s collections, services and learning spaces. Festivities will include dinner and cocktails, a silent auction and a keynote talk from Sarah Thomas, vice president for the Harvard Library.

August 17, 2015 — UC San Diego is ranked the 14th best university in the world for the third consecutive year, according to the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The rankings were recently released by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a public research university located in Shanghai, China, renowned as one of the oldest and most prestigious and selective universities in China. In addition, UC San Diego’s programs in life sciences, engineering, computer science, chemistry, and economics are ranked among the top 20 in the world. Nationally, UC San Diego is listed as the 12th best university.

August 17, 2015 — The introduction of a new prescription smoking-cessation aid, varenicline, in 2006 has had no significant impact on the rate at which Americans age 18 and older successfully quit smoking, according to a study led by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. The findings, published online August 17 in Tobacco Control, suggest that the primary effect of varenicline has been to displace the use of older tobacco addiction therapies, such as nicotine patches and the antidepressant, bupropion.

August 17, 2015 — CSE professor Pavel Pevzner and recent postdoc Phillip Campeau are launching a six-part series of courses as a Specialization mini-degree on Coursera teaching bioinformatics, culminating in a Capstone Project that will prepare students to solve real-world research challenges.

August 17, 2015 — The University of California San Diego, Division of Arts and Humanities announces the appointment of acclaimed set designer Robert Brill as the newest faculty member in the top-ranked Theatre & Dance Department.

August 13, 2015 — Ilkay Altintas has been appointed Chief Data Science Officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, effective immediately. Altintas, who joined SDSC in 2001, will lead the strategic coordination of all computational data science activities at SDSC while overseeing application-based solutions and their related technologies.

August 13, 2015 — Protein Kinase C is a family of enzymes that controls the activity of other proteins in a cell by attaching chemical tags. That simple act helps determine cell survival or death. When it goes awry, a number of diseases may result. In a study, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reveal a more accurate structure of PKC, providing new targets for fine-tuning the enzyme’s activity as needed to improve human health.