News Archive

August 3, 2015 — A $300,000 gift from the Moxie Foundation will support computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego who are researching and developing high-tech assistive technology to help individuals with disabilities.

August 3, 2015 — The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has appointed Shawn Strande as deputy director for the Center, effective immediately. Strande, who worked for both SDSC and UC San Diego in various capacities since 1992, succeeds Richard L. Moore, who retired in June after 13 years with SDSC.

August 3, 2015 — More than 300 undergraduates will present faculty-mentored research to peers, professors and the general public at the annual Summer Research Conference on Aug. 13 at the University of California, San Diego. This year’s event will feature presentations focusing on a range of topics including earthworm-inspired robotics and the early cotton industry’s influence on border culture to the blood brain barrier and sea spray aerosols.

August 3, 2015 — Ethiopians have lived at high altitudes for thousands of years, providing a natural experiment for studying human adaptations to low oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia. One factor that may enable Ethiopians to tolerate high altitudes and hypoxia is the endothelin receptor type B (EDNRB) gene. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine now find that mice with lower-than-normal levels of EDNRB protein are remarkably tolerant to hypoxia.

July 31, 2015 — UC San Diego has received a SANDAG Diamond Award in recognition of the university’s efforts to encourage their employees to use alternative transportation. Currently, 58 percent of campus commuters use alternative transportation options including: Public transit, carpool, vanpool, Coaster Club, Pedal Club, carsharing, Zimride ride-matching access, campus shuttles and more.

July 31, 2015 — Scientists have discovered an exception to an otherwise globally observed pattern—usually biodiversity is greatest in the tropics and decreases toward the poles. The research team collected snails and parasites from 43 field sites spread across five countries and found that parasite prevalence, diversity, and competition rates all increased at higher latitudes, reversing previous ideas.

July 30, 2015 — The Summer Institute is an all-expenses-paid, career-building fellowship for 25, first-year students from historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions across the U.S. The program is in part made possible by the partnership of corporate sponsors.

July 30, 2015 — When University of California, San Diego alumnus and biotechnology pioneer David Goeddel, ’72, pledged a gift of $400,000 to establish the David V. Goeddel Endowed Graduate Fellowship at UC San Diego, his goal was to support and foster the innovators and scientists of the future. The endowed fund, which will be matched in full by the UC San Diego Division of Biological Sciences, will annually support the research and scholarly activities of outstanding Biological Sciences graduate students. The inaugural Goeddel fellowship recipients will use the funding to bolster leading-edge research focused on topics ranging from finding better treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s, to understanding the metabolism of cells in tissues and organs, to studying cyanobacteria as a bio-production platform for renewable fuels.

July 30, 2015 — The boxfish’s unique armor draws its strength from hexagon-shaped scales and the connections between them, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found. Engineers also describe how the structure of the boxfish (Lactoria cornuta) could serve as inspiration for body armor, robots and even flexible electronics.

July 29, 2015 — Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have demonstrated a direct connection between two signaling proteins and liver fibrosis, a scarring process underlying chronic liver disease, the 12th leading cause of death in the United States.