January 23, 2020
January 23, 2020 —
Four hours east of Medellín in northern Colombia’s Puerto Triunfo municipality, the sprawling hacienda constructed by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar of “Narcos” fame has become a tourist attraction. When Escobar’s empire crashed, the exotic animals housed at his family’s zoo, including rhinos, giraffes and zebras, were safely relocated to new homes… except for the hippopotamuses.
January 16, 2020
January 16, 2020 —
An international team of scientists has synthetically engineered mosquitoes that halt the transmission of the dengue virus. The development marks the first engineered approach in mosquitoes that targets the four known types of dengue, improving upon previous designs that addressed single strains.
December 16, 2019
December 16, 2019 —
Scientists have developed a CRISPR-based gene-drive system that inactivates a gene rendering bacteria antibiotic-resistant. The new system leverages technology developed by UC San Diego biologists in insects and mammals that biases genetic inheritance of preferred traits called “active genetics.”
December 13, 2019
December 13, 2019 —
A multi-institutional research team has been awarded a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to build an interdisciplinary research program that explores how the brain learns and stores information.
December 9, 2019
December 9, 2019 —
Scientists have found the most effective CRISPR shield ever discovered in viruses. They discovered a remarkable new strategy that some bacteria-killing viruses, or phages, employ: after they infect bacteria, these phages construct an impenetrable “safe room” inside of their host.
November 6, 2019
November 6, 2019 —
Scientists thought they knew everything there was to know about how and why bacterial cells moved around, but back-to-back articles in Nature by UC San Diego’s Terence Hwa reveal how little they understood bacteria movement en masse.
October 31, 2019
October 31, 2019 —
At the start of the day, we all do it. We reflexively reach for our phones. As the day winds down, many of us can’t help but do the same. We lie in bed as the luminous glow of our phones—along with TVs and tablets, in many cases—shines into our eyes.
October 24, 2019
October 24, 2019 —
Liz Specht, Ph.D.’ 14, Biological Sciences, is the associate director of science and technology at the Good Food Institute, a non-profit organization that supports plant-based and cultivated alternatives to conventional meat products.
October 1, 2019
October 1, 2019 —
Scientists have gained a new understanding of how ultra-resilient tardigrades, or “water bears,” are protected in extreme conditions. The researchers discovered that a protein named Dsup binds and forms a protective cloud against extreme survival threats such as radiation damage.
September 18, 2019
September 18, 2019 —
Studying natural defenses in maize, a staple of diets around the world, UC San Diego biologists describe how they combined an array of scientific approaches to clearly define six genes that encode enzymes responsible for the production of key maize antibiotics known to control disease resistance.
