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.
UCLA Biochemistry professor Sabeeha Merchant, a valued contributor to UCLA Life Sciences’ plant research program was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”
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.
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.
