How Fructose Affects Learning, Memory

Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine, and a professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, was co-author of a recent study showing that a steady high-fructose diet can slow the brain and hamper memory and learning in rats — and how omega-3 fatty acids can minimize the damage.

UCLA Life Sciences undergraduate receives 2012 Charles E. Young Humanitarian Award

Kendra Knudson, a UCLA undergraduate majoring in psychobiology, was awarded the 2012 Charles E. Young Humanitarian Award for developing the Creative Minds Project at Step Up on Second, a nonprofit organization in Santa Monica that serves people with mental illness. The project utilizes creative art therapies to foster change and progress toward recovery, stability and reintegration into society.

Effective Ad? Ask Your Brain

Matthew Lieberman, UCLA professor of Psychology and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral sciences, led a study in which researchers imaged the brains of smokers while they were asked to rate the effectiveness of several anti-smoking ads, with surprising results.

Life Science Professors James A. Lake and Larry Simpson, Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

James A. Lake, Distinguished professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and Human Genetics, and Larry Simpson, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics are among 220 distinguished scholars, scientists, authors, artists, and business and philanthropic leaders elected today to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments.

UCLA stem cell research may benefit diabetics

Ji Won Shim, a UCLA postdoctoral fellow working with Utpal Banerjee, UCLA Professor and Chairman of the Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology department, recently published a study in Nature Cell Biology showing that insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells. This finding could benefit diabetics, through its implications for studying inflammatory response and blood development in response to dietary changes in humans.