It starts with a spark of curiosity. At UC San Diego, seeking answers to challenging questions has led to discoveries that transformed medicine and public safety and opened new frontiers in science. These seven breakthroughs continue to improve lives and shape decisions around the world.
Brain researchers have identified a bridge between the thalamus and the cortex as the key area that is modified during motor learning functions. They found that such learning does much more than adjust activity levels, it sculpts the circuit’s wiring, refining the conversation between brain regions.
The virus that causes COVID-19 arrived in Wuhan, China from its place of origin too quickly for its horseshoe bat hosts to have carried it there — a dispersal pattern consistent with that of the virus that caused the 2002 SARS pandemic, according to a new study.
UC San Diego’s 2025 Strategic Convene and Influence Awards highlight seven groundbreaking initiatives aimed at fostering investigator-led collaborations that advance interdisciplinary thought leadership.
Researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UCLA announced the creation of an engineered bacterium that has the ability to convert the toxic form of mercury present in seafood — methylmercury — into less toxic forms that are more easily removed from the human body.
The Min protein system prevents abnormal cell division in bacteria, but is poorly understood. Researchers from UC San Diego have uncovered how engineered e.coli bacteria control protein levels for maximum efficiency.
Keep up with all the latest from UC San Diego. Subscribe to the newsletter today.
