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.
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.
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.
UC San Diego scientists are providing new clues on how cells defend themselves from attack from viruses. The new study advance’s science’s understanding of interferons— proteins that help combat viruses like SARS-CoV-2—with possible implications for new clinical treatments.
Addressing concerns about gene-drive releases in the wild, UC San Diego scientists and their colleagues have developed two new genetic systems that halt or eliminate gene drives after release. The details are published in the journal Molecular Cell.
In August, a team of researchers at UC San Diego published groundbreaking studies describing unprecedented details of a protein linked to genetically inherited Parkinson’s disease.
With the aid of artificial intelligence, UC San Diego scientists have solved a long-standing puzzle in human gene activation. The discovery described in the journal Nature could be used to control gene activation in biotechnology and biomedical applications.
Molecules known as tRNAs are often overlooked in study of disease processes. Researchers have now found that a mutation in a tRNA gene called n-Tr20—expressed only in the brain—can disrupt the landscape of entire cells, leading to chain reactions that alter brain function and behavior.
An elusive protein that many consider the key of fully understanding the causes of genetic Parkinson’s disease has come much more clearly into focus. Impacting millions around the world, Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder that progressively attacks motor functions.
What are the boundaries of natural selection? Research published in PNAS shows that even natural selection has a tough time optimizing performance simultaneously across multiple components of the cell. They call the concept "evolutionary stalling."