Office of Research
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Biologist Melissa Jurica earns prestigious grant from Searle Scholars Program
The Searle Scholars Program has awarded Melissa Jurica, assistant professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a three-year, $240,000 grant to support her research. Jurica, who studies the complex system by which human cells process genetic information, is one of just 15 young scientists awarded the prestigious grants…
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UCSC to lead ambitious multidisciplinary research project on wireless communication networks
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are leading a major collaborative effort to develop the technology for complex wireless communication networks that can be set up in rapidly changing environments such as battlefields and emergency situations. Faculty in UCSC’s Baskin School of Engineering will head a multidisciplinary team of scientists at seven major…
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Study shows introduced foxes transformed vegetation on Aleutian Islands from lush grassland to tundra
Huge colonies of seabirds accustomed to nesting on islands free of predators began disappearing when fur traders started introducing foxes onto islands in the Aleutian archipelago in the 18th century. The ground-nesting birds made easy meals for the foxes. A study published this week in the journal Science now shows that the effects of the…
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UCSC engineering dean Steve Kang appointed to blue ribbon panel on nanotechnology
Steve Kang, dean of the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been appointed to the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology (BRTFN), a joint federal-state venture to benefit Silicon Valley and promote California as the premier center for nanotechnology research, development, and commercialization. The BRTFN is cochaired by…
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Survey finds silver contamination in North Pacific waters, probably from industrial emissions in Asia
The highest levels of silver contamination ever observed in the open ocean turned up in samples collected during a survey of the North Pacific in 2002. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, measured silver concentrations 50 times greater than the natural background level. Though still well below levels that would be toxic to…
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Scientists concerned about potentially harmful algae persisting in Monterey Bay
A species of microscopic algae that caused “red tides” in Monterey Bay last summer, discoloring the water and killing mussels, is still present in water samples from the bay and has the potential to cause more serious problems, according to scientists involved in a Central Coast ocean monitoring program. “This species has been seen before…
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Genome centers combine forces to validate a gene set for biomedical research
The advent of online databases to access the human genome has been a boon to biomedical research, and the usefulness of this information has just moved to a new level. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and the Wellcome Trust…
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Ocean scientist Mary Silver to give annual Faculty Research Lecture at UCSC on Thursday, March 10
Professor of ocean sciences Mary Silver will give the annual Faculty Research Lecture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Thursday, March 10. Her lecture, titled “A Naturalist’s View: Toxic Algae in the Coastal Ocean,” will begin at 8 p.m. in the Colleges Nine and Ten Multipurpose Room on the UCSC campus. The event…
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Teaching undergraduates to think like researchers-new approaches emerge from experimental teaching lab at UCSC
Scientific experiments commonly yield confusing or conflicting results, and part of a researcher’s job is to incorporate such findings into a coherent framework that sheds some light on the subject under investigation. But this aspect of science rarely makes it into the classroom, where students spend a lot more time on established facts and concepts…