William Lowry, an assistant professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, and associate researcher Saran Karumbayaram, have taken human skin cells, reprogrammed them into cells with the same unlimited property as embryonic stem cells, and then differentiated them into neurons while completely avoiding the use of animal-based reagents and feeder conditions throughout the process.

Robert Modlin, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, has been selected as a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.

Robert Wayne, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is co-author of a recent study that produced the most comprehensive mathematical model ever devised to track the health of populations exposed to environmental change. The team's groundbreaking integral projection model allows researchers to link many different data sources simultaneously.

Amander Clark, assistant professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, and colleagues recently found that established human embryonic stem cell lines, including those approved for federal research funding, differ from newly derived human embryonic stem cell lines. This finding highlights the importance of continuing to derive new stem cell lines so that researchers can better understand the ability of these cells to make every cell in the human body.

Robert Wayne, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, recently led research that produced the most comprehensive mathematical model ever devised to track the health of populations exposed to environmental change. The team's groundbreaking integral projection model allows researchers to link many different data sources simultaneously. Scientists can now change just a single variable, like temperature, and see how that affects many factors for a population.

Amander Clark, UCLA assistant professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, and colleagues recently found that established human embryonic stem cell lines, including those approved for federal research funding, differ from newly derived human embryonic stem cell lines. This finding highlights the importance of continuing to derive new stem cell lines so that researchers can better understand the ability of these cells to make every cell in the human body.

Jerome Zack, professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, and his colleagues, have recently engineered blood stem cells to create immune cells that seek out and attack a type of human melanoma.

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.

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.