The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest maritime oil spill in U.S. history. Almost seven years to the day after the start of the environmental disaster, researchers have published a price tag of the damage done to natural resources: $17.2 billion.
Using the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute at UC San Diego Health, with colleagues in China, have reprogrammed mutated rod photoreceptors to become functioning cone photoreceptors, reversing cellular degeneration and restoring visual function in two mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa.
Somewhere in the at-risk ruins of Khirbat en-Nahas in the Faynan region of southern Jordan lie untold stories of copper mining and smelting industries from the time of David and Solomon and the Edomite kings. Stories that, until now, could only be told in words, maps and photographs. Thanks to UC San Diego engineering and archaeology students that teamed up for the world’s first cyber-archaeology hackathon, the story of King Solomon’s copper mines now exists in virtual reality.
Rock star drummer Rikki Rockett feels very lucky to be on tour with his band, Poison. A year ago, he didn’t know if he would survive tongue cancer but after participating in an immunotherapy clinical trial at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, he was declared cancer-free in July 2016. To give back, Rockett is now asking concert-goers to join him in supporting immunotherapy at Moores Cancer Center.
By applying a novel computer algorithm to closely mimic how the brain learns, a team of researchers – with the aid of the Comet supercomputer based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego – has identified and replicated neural circuitry that resembles the way an unimpaired brain controls limb movement.
San Diego-area high school students interested in pursuing a career in scientifically-based research are invited to apply to UC San Diego’s Mentor Assistance Program (MAP), a campus-wide initiative designed to engage students in a mentoring relationship with an expert from a vast array of disciplines.
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