Scientists have traced the origin of a unique protein key to vertebrate’s camera-like vision back 500 million years. Their analysis of more than 900 genomes across the tree of life revealed that the protein came through horizontal gene transfer from foreign bacterial genes.
UC San Diego scientists find a protein associated with liver cancer may actually be the key to protecting against it. By blocking ferroptosis, a form of liver cell death, the protein prevents liver damage and its progression to cancer.
For the first time, large amounts of melatonin are being made by bacteria. Engineered E. coli are feeding on glucose and churning out melatonin, the hormone that controls circadian rhythms. This mode of manufacturing is growing thanks in part to bioengineering advances made at UC San Diego.
After decades of working in industry and academia, biophysicists Alex Savtchenko and Elena Molokanova still have big dreams.
The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering has launched a program that provides funding to enable early-career faculty in engineering and computer science to build interdisciplinary research collaborations. The program is called the Jacobs School Early Career Faculty Development Award.
Researchers have advanced our understanding of the circadian clock, the biological cycle that synchronizes with light-dark exposure. They recently developed a method to study how the circadian clock synchronizes with the environment in real time, revealing surprises about the clock’s mechanisms.
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