UC Irvine receives $15 million NSF grant for integrative movement research

The National Science Foundation has granted $15 million to the Integrative Movement Sciences Institute at the University of California, Irvine. This six-year funding, part of the NSF’s Biology Integration Institutes program, will support groundbreaking research led by Monica Daley, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the UCI School of Biological Sciences.

Eliminating public health scourge can also benefit agriculture

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame, in a study recently published in Nature, found that removing invasive vegetation at water access points in and around several Senegalese villages reduced rates of schistosomiasis by almost a third. As a bonus, the removed vegetation can also be used for compost and livestock feed.

New method traces ancestry of hybrid plants and animals

In a recent article published in the journal Nature Communications, Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Adam Session and Daniel S. Rokhsar, a professor of genetics, evolution and development at the University of California, Berkeley, outline a way to trace these genomes back to the polypoid hybrid’s parent species.

UC Irvine biologists discover bees to be brew masters of the insect world

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have made a remarkable discovery about cellophane bees – their microbiomes are some of the most fermentative known from the insect world. These bees, which are named for their use of cellophane-like materials to line their subterranean nests, are known for their fascinating behaviors and their important ecological roles as pollinators.

Hallmarks to improving pancreatic cancer therapy identified by UCI researchers

Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have made a significant contribution to the field of pancreatic cancer research. Their new study presents several crucial themes in the biology of pancreatic cancer that can serve as hallmarks for pancreatic cancer therapy.

Study shows how to prevent a high-fat diet from throwing metabolism out of whack

Irvine, Calif., April 5, 2023 — Eating lots of fats increases the risk of metabolic disorders, but the mechanisms behind the problem have not been well understood. Now, University of California, Irvine biologists have made a key finding about how to ward off harmful effects caused by a high-fat diet. Their study appears in Nature Communications.

URI researcher discusses parasitic fungus at the heart of HBO sci-fi series

If you’re a fan of HBO’s post-apocalyptic series “The Last of Us” – or the video game that inspired it – you’ve probably heard the term Cordyceps. In the show, the parasitic fungus has mutated, graduating from infecting insects to humans – transforming them into mind-controlled zombies. But it’s not all science fiction. Niels-Viggo Hobbs Ph.D. ’16, a University of Rhode Island assistant teaching professor in biological sciences, lends his expertise to carefully walk us through the world of Cordyceps.

Controversial Alzheimer’s drug approval sparks surprising impact

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 29, 2022 — When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave controversial accelerated approval to the first Alzheimer’s drug in nearly 20 years, it had a surprising impact on attitudes about research into the disease. A survey by University of California, Irvine neuroscientists has found news coverage of the FDA’s decision made the public less willing to volunteer for Alzheimer’s pharmaceutical trials.

Research takes on a massive problem: Chronic infection linked to medical devices

Infections related to implanted medical devices are shockingly common and a research team including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York is working to address the problem.

Eye-opening discovery about adult brain’s ability to recover vision

A discovery about how some visually impaired adults could start to see offers a new vision of the brain’s possibilities. The finding that the adult brain has the potential to partially recover from inherited blindness comes from a collaboration between researchers in the University of California, Irvine School of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine.

Climate change leads to invasive insect expansion on West Coast

Climate change has led to warming temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, leading some insect species to expand their range into more northerly oak savannas, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Solving algorithm ‘amnesia’ reveals clues to how we learn

A discovery about how algorithms can learn and retain information more efficiently offers potential insight into the brain’s ability to absorb new knowledge. The findings by researchers at the University of California, Irvine School of Biological Sciences could aid in combatting cognitive impairments and improving technology.

Four professors elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Irvine, Calif., April 28, 2022 — A quartet of professors at the University of California, Irvine, has been elected as members by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The 242nd class of AAAS inductees includes 261 extraordinary people from around the world, recognized for their accomplishments and leadership in academia, the arts, industry, public policy and research.

False spring: Climate change may erode frogs’ ability to withstand salt pollution

Climate change may erode frogs’ ability to withstand road salt pollution, according to researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

UCI researcher receives NIH Transformational Research Award

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 6, 2020 — University of California, Irvine biomedical engineer Chang Liu is the recipient of one of nine Director’s Transformative Research Awards this year from the National Institutes of Health under its High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, the agency announced today. Liu’s five-year, $8.4 million grant will support a project to develop a system for making antibody generation a routine and widely accessible process.

FAU’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Researchers Receive Prestigious NSF CAREER Awards

Four FAU researchers have received the coveted NSF Early Career (CAREER) award for research to develop a low-cost, disposable point-of-care platform to detect current and emerging infectious diseases; for a cognitive screening tool for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease using wearables and a smartphone; for mathematical tools and new ways of coding to enhance cybersecurity; and to better understand how marine animals tune, or dynamically adjust their movements using their skin and skeletons.

New View on How Tissues Flow in the Embryo

Watching and measuring what happens in tissues inside the human embryo is currently not possible, and it’s difficult to do in mammalian models. Because humans and the fruit fly Drosophila share so many biological similarities, Columbia Engineering and Syracuse University researchers tackled this problem by focusing on fruit flies. The team reports today that they can predict when the tissue will begin to rapidly flow just by looking at cell shapes in the tissue.

Scientists Develop New Way to Identify the Sex of Sea Turtle Hatchlings

Scientists have developed a new minimally invasive technique that greatly enhances the ability to measure neonate turtle sex ratios. This is the first time that differences in sex-specific protein expression patterns have been identified in blood samples of hatchlings with temperature-dependent sex determination. The technique is a crucial step in assessing the impact of climate change on imperiled turtle species and will enable more accurate estimates of hatchling sex ratios at a population level and on a global scale.

UCI biologists spearhead creation of Microbiome Centers Consortium

Irvine, Calif., Dec. 23, 2019 — From probing the ocean depths to deciphering human health mysteries, researchers across scientific disciplines are increasingly including microbiomes in their work. The Microbiome Centers Consortium has been launched by two University of California, Irvine School of Bioscience faculty members to advance growth in this life science field, increasingly recognized as relevant to many other disciplines and industrial applications.