October 17, 2022
Researchers led by Nicole Steinmetz, professor of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego, have received $4.3 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance their research using plant viruses to develop cancer immunotherapies.
April 20, 2020
UC San Diego nanoengineers received a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation to develop—using a plant virus—a stable, easy to manufacture COVID-19 vaccine patch that can be shipped around the world and painlessly self-administered by patients.
January 12, 2017
…have documented for the first time how very large viruses reprogram the cellular machinery of bacteria during infection to more closely resemble an animal or human cell—a process that allows these alien invaders to trick cells into producing hundreds of new viruses, which eventually explode from and kill the cells…
May 20, 2019
Imagine a technology that could target pesticides to treat specific spots deep within the soil, making them more effective at controlling infestations while limiting their toxicity to the environment. Researchers at UC San Diego and Case Western Reserve University have taken a step toward that goal.
May 13, 2024
…treatment made from a plant virus is effective at protecting against a broad range of metastatic cancers in mice, shows a new study from the University of California San Diego. The treatment, composed of nanoparticles fashioned from the cowpea mosaic virus—a virus that infects black-eyed pea plants—showed remarkable success in…
April 27, 2022
The cowpea mosaic virus has shown great promise as an experimental cancer immunotherapy for treating and preventing recurrence of various cancers. But just how the virus triggers such a potent anti-cancer immune response has remained a mystery. A new study digs deeper and provides answers.
March 2, 2021
Rapid COVID-19 tests are on the rise to deliver results faster to more people, and scientists need an easy, foolproof way to know that these tests work correctly and the results can be trusted. Nanoparticles that pass detection as the novel coronavirus could be just the ticket.
June 28, 2023
In a first-of-its-kind comparison, UC San Diego scientists have shown that pollination by honey bees, which are not native to the Americas, produces offspring of considerably inferior quality (lower fitness) than offspring resulting from native pollinators.
September 21, 2023
UC San Diego engineers have devised a new solution to control a major agricultural menace, root-damaging nematodes. Using plant viruses, they created nanoparticles that can deliver pesticides to previously unreachable soil depths. This could potentially minimize environmental toxicity and costs.
November 28, 2016
Biologists have discovered that the evolution of a new species can occur rapidly enough for them to observe the process in a simple laboratory flask.
