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.

Elissa Hallem, assistant professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, was named a 2012 Searle Scholar, for her innovative and interdisciplinary research on host-parasite interactions.

Graduate students Megan Bartlett and Christine Scoffoni, along with Lawren Sack, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, recently published new findings that could lead to predictions of which plant species will escape extinction from climate change.

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.

Stephanie White, a UCLA associate professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology is senior author of a new study that found 2,000 genes expressed in a region of the male zebra finch's brain, that are significantly linked to singing. At least some of these genes are shared by humans, and are likely important for human speech.

Dr. Hanna Mikkola, UCLA associate professor of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, recently led a study that found a specific cell signaling pathway in the placenta that plays a key role in stopping blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in the placenta. This is critical to ensure proper blood supply for an individual's lifetime.

John Novembre, an assistant professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is among 126 scientists and scholars to receive a 2012 Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Postdoctoral researcher Yanling Wang has been named a Damon Runyon Fellow by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting exceptional early career researchers and innovative cancer research.

Michael Alfaro, associate professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and his colleagues shed light on why faces of primates look so dramatically different from one another.