Since 2007, UC San Diego’s Operation Santa has provided Christmas celebrations for 731 San Diego families who are facing financial hardship. Many of the families served by Operation Santa are led by single mothers as well as those who are victims of domestic violence, facing illness, experiencing the loss of a family member or struggling financially. Each year, Alpha Phi Omega encourages community members to nominate families in need and gives individuals and organizations the opportunity to participate as “adopters.” Operation Santa matches families with “adopters” who, after receiving the nominated family’s gift wish list, buy, wrap and deliver holiday presents to families by Dec. 24. As Operation Santa has grown over the years, Alpha Phi Omega has seen a rise in the number of families nominated to receive help during the holiday season; however, the number of nominated families continues to outpace adopters: the ratio of nomination applications to adoption applications is 4 to 1.
Using a groundbreaking gene editing technique, biologists at UC San Diego, working in collaboration with biologists at UC Irvine, have created a strain of mosquitoes capable of rapidly introducing malaria-blocking genes into a mosquito population through its progeny, ultimately eliminating the insects’ ability to transmit the disease to humans.
The impact HIV/AIDS has had and continues to have in the San Diego community and beyond is the center of the University of California, San Diego’s recognition of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The campus will sponsor a number of events throughout the day, including a display of sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the Price Center Ballroom East from noon until 9 p.m. Other events on World AIDS Day, which was established in 1988 and is held on Dec. 1 each year, include a presentation on the HIV prevention pill Truvada, or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), artistic performances, stories from young people living with HIV and more.
After a study abroad trip to Tanzania as an undergraduate, Julie Bergmann knew that she wanted to pursue a career in public health. Now a doctoral candidate in global health at UC San Diego, Bergmann is conducting research in Uganda to assess health care barriers for HIV-exposed infants. Bergmann is part of the inaugural UC San Diego Frontiers of Innovation Scholars Program cohort and will present her research at the first annual FISP Symposium on Friday, Nov. 20.
Scripps researchers are using sea urchins to help understand proteins relevant to human and environmental health. Cell proteins called drug transporters have been known to prevent chemotherapy and other drugs from reaching cells in disease treatment. Hamdoun and his colleagues have identified the role of a drug transporter in the early life stages of the sea urchin gut. The results could lead to new ways to target cancer drug resistance and to prevent birth defects.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego, is a recipient of this year’s HPCwire and Editors’ Choice Awards for its new Comet supercomputer that entered production earlier this year as a result of a National Science Foundation grant worth nearly $24 million including hardware and operating funds.
