A study by students attending this year's Research Experience for High School Students (REHS)summer internship program at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), an Organized Research Unit of UC San Diego, shows that many previous REHS participants followed a computer science and engineering (CSE)…
UC San Diego biologists and their colleagues have revealed that enhancer RNAs play a significant role in cancer dissemination. The researchers found that eRNAs have a direct role in the activation of genes that are important for tumor development. This role is facilitated by the ability of eRNAs to directly…
A concept known as “percolation” is helping microbiologists at UC San Diego explain how communities of bacteria can effectively relay signals across long distances. Once regarded as simple clusters of microorganisms, communities of bacteria have been found to employ a strategy we use to brew coffee…
New research has uncovered a protein that enables the replication of arenaviruses, lethal pathogens spreading in West Africa. The research identified DDX3 as a key factor through its unexpected ability to dismantle normal human immune system defenses. The study may pave the way to new therapeutic treatments…
Researchers discovered an unexpected twist in the battle versus tumors. Tumors employ a protein called PD-L1 to blind T cells from functioning. PD-L1 protects tumors through a “molecular brake” known as PD-1. Researchers have found that some tumor cells display not only their PD-L1 weapon, but also…
Through x-ray crystallography and kinase-inhibitor specificity profiling, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with researchers at Peking University and Zhejiang University, reveal that curcumin, a natural occurring chemical compound found in the spice turmeric,…
UC San Diego has selected Kit Pogliano, a professor of molecular biology, as its new dean for the Division of Biological Sciences. Pogliano was selected after a national search and will begin her new appointment on Sept. 15, 2018. She is the fourth dean of the division and its first female leader. She…
With microbial resistance to antibiotics growing into a major global health crisis, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with national research institutions and private industry, are leveraging hard-won expertise to exploit a natural viral enemy of pathogenic…
The Pew Charitable Trusts has announced that UC San Diego Biological Sciences Assistant Professors Matthew Daugherty and Enfu Hui have been selected to the 2018 class of Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. Pew also announced that Diego Alvarez and Grisel Cruz Becerra, Biological Sciences postdoctoral…
Graphene electrodes could enable higher quality imaging of brain cell activity thanks to new research by a team of engineers and neuroscientists at the University of California San Diego. The researchers developed a technique, using platinum nanoparticles, to lower the impedance of graphene electrodes…