News Archive

March 21, 2017 — Standard antidepressant medications don’t work for everyone, and even when they do they are slow to kick in. In an effort to find better depression treatments, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine discovered that inhibiting an enzyme called Glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) relieves signs of depression in mice. Moreover, inhibiting GLO1 worked much faster than the conventional antidepressant Prozac.

March 20, 2017 — Hundreds of visitors recently helped usher in “Making Communities: Art and the Border,” an exhibition that shines a light on immigrant communities as a source of creativity. During its opening, several UC San Diego artists participated in a speaking program addressing the recent rhetoric citing Mexico as a source of crime and economic decline. Curated by Ph.D. alumna Tatiana Sizonenko (’13), this third major exhibition in a series of programs celebrating the Department of Visual Arts’ 50th anniversary—“VISUAL ARTS @ 50: ART INTO LIFE—is on view now through April 13 at three distinct campus locations: the University Art Gallery (UAG), the SME Visual Arts Gallery (SME) and the Cross Cultural Center galleries.

March 20, 2017 — Faced with a downturn in visitors, the San Diego History Center (SDHC) decided to take an innovative approach to boosting museum attendance – let visitors determine how much they wanted to pay for their visit. The museum’s “Give Forward” admissions program launched in October 2016 and, to date, has given it a significant boost in attendance. This fundamental shift in admissions was inspired by the research of Ayelet Gneezy and Uri Gneezy, faculty at the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego, and experts in charitable giving. Working with the Rady School professors, the museum determined the best way to increase admissions was to allow visitors to contribute based on their experience in the museum, instead of paying a set admissions fee. In addition, the museum highlights to visitors that admissions donations help pay for other people to visit in the future.

March 20, 2017 — Genetic mutations that cause cancer also weaken cancer cells, allowing researchers to develop drugs that will selectively kill them. This is called “synthetic lethality” because the drug is only lethal to mutated (synthetic) cells. Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering developed a method to search for synthetic-lethal gene combinations. The technique, published March 20 in Nature Methods, uncovered 120 new opportunities for cancer drug development.

March 20, 2017 — Kyoto University of Japan, one of the University of California San Diego’s international partners, will open an office in San Diego in early April, both campuses have announced.

March 16, 2017 — To help promote cooperation between educational institutions in the United States and Mexico, the UC San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies co-launches the Mexico Studies Chair, hosting a Fulbright-Garcia Robles scholar to research and teach on campus.

March 16, 2017 — The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has awarded UC San Diego top honors for outstanding work in alumni relations, design and photography, digital communications, magazines, marketing and video. The university garnered 12 awards—including five gold awards—in the annual CASE District VII Awards of Excellence, which recognizes best practices at educational institutions in the western United States.

March 16, 2017 — This spring, a new wave of students will be welcomed to UC San Diego at Triton Days, an annual showcase of all that the campus has to offer. More than 25,000 newly admitted students and their families are expected to attend. Admitted freshmen will explore the campus at Triton Day on Saturday, April 8, while Transfer Triton Day will occur on Saturday, May 6.

March 16, 2017 — With a propulsion system inspired by the tail fins of tuna, UC San Diego engineering students aim to win an annual human-powered submarine race this summer. The race pits student teams from around the world against each other—with each team aiming to be the first to get their submarine cross an underwater finish line.

March 16, 2017 — An explorer, scientist and public servant, the late astronaut Sally Ride dedicated her career to the betterment of human kind. At UC San Diego, where Ride served as a professor, a new graduate fellowship established in her name aims to inspire future generations of boundary-breaking physicists who will contribute to the public good.