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.

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.

Utpal Banerjee, the Irving and Jean Stone Professor and chairman of the Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Department received the National Institutes of Heath’s Pioneer Award, which recognizes leading-edge, innovative research.

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.

UCLA research studying the nature of human pluripotent stem cells featured William Lowry, assistant professor of molecular, cell and development biology and a researcher with the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, led the study. The findings could have implications both clinically, in terms of transplantation, and for disease modeling.

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.

Richard Zimmer, a UCLA distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and his team, recently published new research on sperm and egg interactions in red abalone, an ocean-dwelling snail. Implications of this research could improve the treatment of human infertility.

A column in today's Los Angeles Times about the dangers kids face at school cites a study led by UCLA psychology professor Jaana Juvonen that found that nearly three in four teenagers had been bullied online during a 12-month period.

Jerome Zack, director of the UCLA Center for Aids Research and UCLA professor in the department microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, and his research team were recently awarded an NIH grant to develop medication that, in a limited number of treatments, could completely rid infected individuals of HIV.