Life scientist, Elissa Hallem, is honored as a Searle Scholar
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.
Which Plants Will Survive Droughts, Climate Change?
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.
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.
A bird’s song may teach us about human speech disorders
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.
UCLA scientists identify a cell signaling pathway that regulates blood stem cells in placenta
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.
UCLA Life Sciences Assistant Professor awarded prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship
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.
UCLA Life Science postdoctoral researcher awarded Damon Runyon Fellowship
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.
Evolution is written all over your face
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.
Stem Cell Study: Balancing blood supply
Utpal Banerjee, the Irving and Jean Stone Professor and chairman of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology co-authored a study showing that two-way signaling from two different sets of cells is necessary for bloody-supply balance, both to ensure that enough blood cells are produced to respond to injury and infection and that blood progenitor cells remain available for future needs.