Skip to main content
School of Biological Sciences School of Biological Sciences

Recent News

  • Lesser Egyptian Jerboa

    UC San Diego Biologist and Collaborators Receive $1 Million Keck Award

    The award will support ongoing research into the role of inflammation in animals from birds to mammals, work that also has implications in human medicine

    A multi-institutional research team that includes UC San Diego biologist Kim Cooper has been awarded a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to study the role of inflammation in animals, which has implications for health and skeletal development in humans.

  • A fluorescence microscopy image reveals the tuberculosis-causing bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis after an antimicrobial treatment.

    AI Accelerates the Search for New Tuberculosis Drug Targets

    While a TB outbreak grows in Kansas, a biotech company spun off from UC San Diego-developed technology leverages deep learning to screen for new antimicrobial candidates

    As one of the largest tuberculosis outbreaks in the U.S. unfolds in Kansas, UC San Diego researchers and their colleagues have published research describing the use of artificial intelligence tools to screen for new antimicrobial candidates to treat the disease.

  • Satellite image of harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie.

    New Insights on the Dynamics of Harmful Algal Blooms under Climate Warming

    In freshwater environments, toxic harmful algal blooms threaten drinking water and wildlife. While most efforts on mitigating such events focus on reducing nutrients, researchers have found that there’s more to the story, especially when considering climate warming that could amplify such events.

  • Laboratory flask with phytoplankton

    Effects of Declining Diversity Documented in the World of Microbes

    Scientists in UC San Diego’s School of Biological Sciences recently investigated how declining biodiversity in tiny ecological systems unseen to the naked eye can carry significant consequences for the health of organisms and ecosystems.

  • Villi of the small mouse intestine.

    New Research Reveals How Location Influences How Our Immune System Fights Disease

    Findings could pave the way for improved immunotherapies and vaccines

    A new study led by a team of scientists reveals how cells known as tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells play unique and specialized roles based on where they are located. The discovery sheds light on how such cells adapt to their location and could lead to improved immunotherapy and vaccines.

  • Graphic of mapped structures of human brain receptors for the neurotransmitter GABA.

    Epilepsy Patient Samples Offer Unprecedented Insights on Brain ‘Brakes’ Linked to Disorders

    Advanced scientific instruments allow scientists to build a map of brain receptors, opening the door to possible novel ways to treat epilepsy and mental disorders

    Specific protein receptors in the brain play a vital role in how neurons slow down or stop firing, making them targets for many disorders. Researchers have now constructed a detailed structural map of these receptors in the human brain, revealing how they assemble and how drugs bind to them.

  • Sonya Neal

    BioSci's Sonya Neal Receives Presidential Early Career Award

    School of Biological Sciences’ Sonya Neal and four other faculty members from UC San Diego have been selected to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to early career scientists and engineers.

  • A T cell expressing the immune checkpoint receptor PD-1.

    Scientists Unveil Surprising Human vs Mouse Differences in a Major Cancer Immunotherapy Target

    Results of a comprehensive analysis refute assumptions that a key immune checkpoint receptor functions the same in rodents and humans

    Much of our knowledge of the protein PD-1, a leading cancer treatment target, comes from studies in mice. In a comprehensive assessment of PD-1, researchers have found that PD-1 in mice is significantly weaker than the human version, providing new information on how cancer treatments are developed.

  • Elizabeth Villa and Kimberly Cooper

    Kimberly Cooper and Elizabeth Villa Named Pew Innovation Fund Investigators

    Biologists to study mysteries related to specialized bone cells during growth

    UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences Professors Kimberly Cooper and Elizabeth Villa have been selected by the Pew Charitable Trusts as members of its 2024 class of Innovation Fund Investigators.

  • Plants sprayed with insecticides

    New Gene Drive Reverses Insecticide Resistance in Pests… Then Disappears

    The self-eliminating ‘e-Drive’ replaces mutant genes with native genes to reduce pesticide use and protect valuable food crops

    UC San Diego geneticists have developed a gene drive-based solution to the widespread problem of insecticide resistance. In an effort to protect valuable crops, the researchers created an “e-Drive” that reverses insecticide resistance and then disappears from the insect population.

  • Pamela Reinagel

    Pamela Reinagel Awarded Sensory Sentinel Grant by Turner Scientific

    Turner Scientific has chosen Pamela Reinagel, Ph.D., as the winner of its 2024 Sensory Sentinel grant to promote animal welfare and improved research. Reinagel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of California San Diego.

To read more about the School of Biological Sciences happenings, see the News Archives.