January 8, 2015
…burn easily in air, fluoresce under UV light and react with most nonmetals. But then lanthanides inexplicably fell out of popularity in the 1970s. Now Almutairi is taking up the mantle to explore how lanthanides do one special thing: convert low-energy light to high-energy light. She has two people in…
September 1, 2011
Biologists have long known that organisms from bacteria to humans use the 24 hour cycle of light and darkness to set their biological clocks. But exactly how these clocks are synchronized at the molecular level to perform the interactions within a population of cells that depend on the precise timing…
December 18, 2011
In an example of life imitating art, biologists and bioengineers at UC San Diego have created a living neon sign composed of millions of bacterial cells that periodically fluoresce in unison like blinking light bulbs.
August 23, 2021
Amyloid plaques found in the retinas of eyes may be an indicator of similar plaques in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, and may provide a more visible biomarker for detecting disease risk.
October 10, 2024
Wei Xiong and his team of researchers study novel light-matter interactions as a way to control and understand how the structure and dynamics of materials change when they interact with photons. In recognition of this work, Xiong, who is a Kent Wilson Faculty Scholar in UC San Diego’s Department of…
May 28, 2013
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have designed tiny spherical particles to float easily through the bloodstream after injection, then assemble into a durable scaffold within diseased tissue.
January 18, 2012
…Emmanuel Theodorakis’s lab studying fluorescent molecules that can be used for detection of amyloid plaques, which are linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Today, Alzheimer’s disease is clinically diagnosed once cognitive symptoms become evident. The Theodorakis lab is working to develop diagnostic molecules to identify the disease in its initial stages—even before…
April 3, 2012
…genes attached to green fluorescent proteins can be viewed under an ultraviolet light using a dark box with viewing holes. Physics students meanwhile will demonstrate the many uses of liquid nitrogen in cooling materials. The Jacobs School of Engineering’s undergraduate students will display the hardware they use to launch balloons…
June 5, 2012
…as a brightfield and fluorescent microscope as well as a spectrophotometer to examine everything from blood cells to bacteria. Traditional two-in-one microscopes don’t historically include spectroscopy and can cost more than $50,000. The students are now on their third prototype for the microscope and estimate there will be at least…
November 14, 2011
…stem cells that become fluorescent when they adopt the cardiac progenitor, heart muscle, or pacemaker state, with the aim of obtaining sufficient numbers of specific cell types for cardiac therapy. More… Anirvan Ghosh Professor of Biology Ghosh is researching whether forebrain neurons can be generated from human embryonic stem cells.…
