Research

Clean Power Surge Needed: China’s 2035 Climate Plan Must Aim High

Science & Environment

Eco-environmentally friendly green energy of sustainable development of solar power plant with Shanghai skyline

The Long Pathway to Cell Organization and Growth

Science & Environment

Associate Professor of Literature Brandon Som Among 100th Class of Guggenheim Fellows

Humanities

The Latest

Scientists Find Missing Factor in Gene Activation

Health & Behavior

UC San Diego scientists have unraveled a decades-long mystery on how genes are activated. Until activated, human genes are blocked by structures known as nucleosomes, components that serve to package DNA inside cells. Scientists have been trying to determine how these nucleosome roadblocks clear out to allow genes to be turned on. Now, a team of scientists has identified a key factor that partially unravels nucleosomes and clears the way for genes to activate. The identification of “NDF,” or nucleosome destabilizing factor, is described May 14 in the journal Genes & Development. The researchers say the finding provides a new perspective on how genes are turned on and off—knowledge useful in the study of human diseases such as cancer, which can be caused by improper gene activity.

Scientists Find Missing Factor in Gene Activation

Reprogrammed Stem Cell-Derived Neurons Survive Long-Term in Pigs with Spinal Cord Injuries

Health & Behavior

In a new paper, an international team led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe successfully grafting induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural precursor cells back into the spinal cords of genetically identical adult pigs with no immunosuppression efforts. The grafted cells survived long-term, displayed differentiated functionality and caused no tumors.

Reprogrammed Stem Cell-Derived Neurons Survive Long-Term in Pigs with Spinal Cord Injuries

Chemists Work ‘In Between’ Light, Matter and Imaginary Cat to Improve Technology

Science & Environment

University of California San Diego’s Wei Xiong studies the science of “in between.” Specifically, the physical chemist studies mixed states of light and matter in order to better understand how the two forms of energy interact and communicate. Xiong does this by mixing light and matter to create hybrid quantum combinations whose properties he and his team measure and analyze. Recent research by Xiong; Bo Xiang, a Ph.D. candidate in his group; and postdoctoral scholar Raphael Ribeiro, from the Joel Yuen-Zhou Group, was published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in an article titled, “Two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy of vibrational polaritons.”

Chemists Work ‘In Between’ Light, Matter and Imaginary Cat to Improve Technology

Space Scientists See Clear Skies around ‘Hot’ and ‘Salty’ Planet

Science & Environment

Exploring space beyond our solar system, UC San Diego Professor of Physics Adam Burgasser collaborated with an international team of astronomers, led by Nikolay Nikolov from the University of Exeter, to discover that the atmosphere of an exoplanet named WASP-96b, a so-called “hot Saturn,” is cloud-free. Their research is now published in the scientific journal Nature in an article titled, “An absolute sodium abundance for a cloud-free ‘hot Saturn’ exoplanet.”

Space Scientists See Clear Skies around ‘Hot’ and ‘Salty’ Planet

Chemists ‘Crystallize’ New Approach to Materials Science

Health & Behavior

Researchers in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California San Diego mixed together unlikely materials to create a new hybrid form of crystalline matter that could change the practice of materials science. The findings, published in "Nature," present potential benefits to medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.

Chemists ‘Crystallize’ New Approach to Materials Science

UC San Diego Professor Natalia Molina Wins 2018 China Residency Exchange Fellowship

Humanities

University of California San Diego professor Natalia Molina has been awarded the 2018 China Residency at Wuhan University by the Organization of American Historians. Given in partnership with the American History Research Association of China, the residency will see Molina present a summer seminar on race and politics in the context of the United States.