Adoptees Do Equally Well in Gay, Straight Families

Social-science research on same-sex families highlighted a study by Jill Waterman, UCLA adjunct professor of psychology; Letitia Anne Peplau, UCLA distinguished research professor of psychology; and Justin Lavner, a UCLA doctoral candidate in psychology, showing that high-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when they are placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents.

Public Tickets Now On Sale for UCLA’s Science & Food Lecture Series

Public tickets for the extremely popular, second-annual campus “Science and Food” lecture series, taught by food scientist Amy Rowat,are now available.

Blue flies, deterioration of the intestinal barrier, and age-related death

Aging is marked by the accumulation of wear and tear on the body’s organs and tissues, but the specific kinds of damage that usher in death are still unknown. David Walker and his colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, suspected that the intestines may play a key role. In previous studies, when energy metabolism in the intestines was boosted, the flies’ lifespan increased.

Profile: Amy Rowat

A profile on Amy Rowat, UCLA assistant professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, highlighting her annual “Science and Food” public events, which feature top chefs and are presented in conjunction with her UCLA academic course, “Science and Food: The Physical and Molecular Origins of What We Eat.”

Predicting hotspots for future flu outbreaks

Thomas Smith, director of the UCLA Center for Tropical Research and professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Trevon Fuller, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Tropical Research have developed a technique that allows us to predict sites where human and bird viruses could mix and generate a future pandemic.

While you’re on your computer, why not strengthen your marriage?

Andrew Christensen, professor of Psychology who has worked with hundreds of couples over more than 30 years, worked with his colleague Brian Doss, a UCLA alumnus, to designed a website, www.OurRelationship.com, that allows you and your partner to strengthen your marriage— for free and from the comfort of your own home.

Strong family support decreases likelihood of postpartum depression

UCLA postdoctoral scholar in Psychology, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook,led new research showing that women with strong social support from their families during pregnancy appear to be protected from sharp increases in a particular stress hormone, making them less likely to experience post-partum depression.

Nanotech methods that use tissue-penetrating light to fight cancer.

Fuyu Tamanoi, professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, together with UCLA biochemist, Jeffrey Zink, and other colleagues, have discovered a new nanotechnology method to fight cancer with tissue-penetrating light.

UCLA study could provide insight into recent TB outbreak in L.A.’s skid row

UCLA researchers, including senior author Dr. Robert L. Modlin, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics have found that certain bacteria — including the type that causes tuberculosis — can act like viruses and hide out, unhindered, inside our cells.

‘Defective’ virus surprisingly plays major role in spread of disease

UCLA postdoctoral scholar Ruian Ke, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor James Lloyd-Smith, have found that defective viruses help normal, functional viruses by increasing the transmission of the functional virus.