UCLA Biologists Slow the Aging Process in Fruit Flies

David Walker, assistant professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, recently led a study showing that when the expression of a single gene, PGC-1, was boosted within the digestive tracts of fruit flies, the flies lived as much as fifty percent longer. PGC-1 activates the cells’ mitochondria and regulates mitochondrial activity in mammals and flies.

UCLA Terasaki Life Sciences Building Wins Architecture Award

The 2011 Brick in Architecture Awards, sponsored by the Brick Industry Assn., have recognized the Terasaki Life Sciences Building at the University of California-Los Angeles as Best in Class in the Educational category. The architect was Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Stenfors Associates Architects was the associate.

UCLA Life Scientists Win ‘Breakthrough’ Award

V. Reggie Edgerton, UCLA distinguished professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology and Yury Gerasimenko, a UCLA researcher in Integrative Biology and Physiology and director of the laboratory of movement physiology at Russia’s St. Petersburg’s Pavlov Institute are among the four recipients of the 2011 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for a new procedure that uses direct electrical stimulation to give spinal injury patients back some voluntary movement.

UCLA scientists find H1N1 flu virus prevalent in animals in Africa

Thomas B. Smith, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and colleagues, recently discovered the first evidence of the H1N1 virus in animals in Africa. In one village in northern Cameroon, a staggering 89 percent of the pigs studied had been exposed to the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu.

UCLA psychologists discover a gene’s link to optimism, self-esteem

Shelley E. Taylor, distinguished professor in the department of Psychology, is senior author of new research that has identified for the first time, a particular gene’s link to optimism, self-esteem, and “mastery,” the belief that one has control over one’s own life— three critical psychological resources for coping well with stress and depression.

How to Close the Race Gap in H.I.V.?

Vickie Mays, UCLA professor of psychology, professor of health services in the School of Public Health, and director of the UCLA Center for Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities, addressed how sex education and intervention programs can potentially lower the incidence of HIV among young gay African-American men.