News Archive - Michelle Franklin

STEM Girl Summer Shows High School Students a Future of Possibilities

Even today, women remain underrepresented in STEM careers, especially in male-dominated fields like physics, engineering and mathematics. According to the American Association for University Women, women in STEM careers — and girls who study in STEM fields — are still hampered by gender stereotypes, a dearth of role models and a lack of confidence. UC San Diego graduate student Robin Glefke hopes to change that with STEM Girl Summer.

Under Pressure: How Comb Jellies Have Adapted to Life at the Bottom of the Ocean

UC San Diego Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Itay Budin teamed up with researchers from around the country to study the cell membranes of ctenophores (“comb jellies”) and found they had unique lipid structures that allow them to live under intense pressure.

The Unexpected Connection Between Brewing Coffee and Understanding Turbulence

Using unconventional statistical mechanics to understand fluid dynamics, UC San Diego Professor of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld helped solve a 150 year old physics problem of how turbulent fluids move through a pipe.

A Change of Direction

UC San Diego Assistant Professor of Physics Mattia Serra and colleagues at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) have developed a new method that can manipulate the movement of embryonic cells using short-time attractors — a concept Serra had previously developed and adopted to help search and rescue operations at sea.

A New Gene-Editing System Tackles Complex Diseases

Current methods to model or correct mutations in live cells are inefficient, especially when multiplexing — installing multiple point mutations simultaneously across the genome. Researchers from the UC San Diego have developed new, efficient genome editing tools called multiplexed orthogonal base editors (MOBEs) to install multiple point mutations at once. Their work, led by Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Alexis Komor’s lab, appears in Nature Biotechnology.

Helping Transfer Students Thrive in Science

A four-week summer program at the University of California San Diego is designed to help incoming transfer students gain valuable research experience, meet peers and faculty, and build confidence before the school year starts. Launched last year as a pilot program, the Transfer Student Research Experience (T-Rex) program will start its second year this summer.

UC San Diego Professors Join Prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Two UC San Diego faculty members have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Stephan Haggard, Distinguished Research Professor of political science in UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, and Kenneth Intriligator, Distinguished Professor of physics.