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Scientists Build Synthetic Cell-Sized Membranes Out of Paper

January 4, 2017
Scientists have been synthesizing lipid membranes from a variety of materials, making them as lifelike as possible to learn more about how cells work and how they can be manipulated. UC Merced Professor Anand Subramaniam and his students have come up with a novel, portable and startlingly simple...

Study: Warming Could Slow Upslope Migration of Trees

December 15, 2016
By Dan Krotz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Scientists expect subalpine trees to advance upslope as global temperatures increase, following their climate up the mountains. But new research published Dec. 15 in the journal Global Change Biology suggests this might not hold true for two...

Researchers Enlist Hospital in Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance

December 9, 2016
There are 1.7 million multidrug-resistant, hospital-acquired infections that extend hospital stays, increase medical expenses and decrease quality of life. The United States alone reports at least 120,000 deaths annually from resistant infections that are improperly treated because of a scarcity of...

Picking Over the Past Provides Clues to the Future

November 30, 2016
UC Merced professors Jessica Blois and Justin Yeakel and their graduate students are sifting through time, picking out tiny clues that will give them a mouse’s eye view of the ecosystem that surrounded what is now the La Brea Tar Pits in the middle of Los Angeles.   A deeper look into the past...

People in Eurasia are Genetic Hybrids with Evolutionary Advantages, Study Shows

November 16, 2016
It’s not just luck or practice that gets Sherpa mountaineers up the slopes of Mt. Everest each year. Functioning so well at extreme elevations is in the Sherpa and Tibetan DNA — literally. A new study by UC Merced Professor Emilia Huerta-Sánchez — published recently in the journal Molecular Biology...

The Real Horror of ‘Frankenstein:’ Human Extinction

October 28, 2016
If fictional scientist Victor Frankenstein had created a mate for his nameless Creature, humans would have gone extinct in about 4,000 years, according to a new study co-authored by a UC Merced professor. Two hundred years ago this year, 18-year-old author Mary Shelley began writing her now-classic...

Researcher’s Work Could Help Stop Aggressive Breast Cancers

October 21, 2016
Adjunct Professor Gabriela Loots is studying why certain cancers prefer to metastasize to bone, using novel technology developed by fellow UC Merced Professor Michael Cleary. Her work, which takes place mainly at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, earned her a three-year, $768,803 grant from...

Researchers Eye Foggy Link Between Redwoods, Climate Change

October 6, 2016
Most Americans have probably seen gorgeous photos of fog winding its way through California’s coastal redwoods. The trees are one of the state’s most prominent icons, drawing more than 2 million visitors a year. But at a time when rising sea levels, melting polar ice, droughts and superstorms are...

Professor’s Findings Help Illuminate the Human Immune System

October 3, 2016
Professor Anna Beaudin is just starting up her lab at UC Merced, but a paper she recently published already has some big implications for understanding autoimmune disease, allergies and rejection of transplanted organs. A developmental biologist with the School of Natural Sciences and an affiliate...

Research Breakthrough Could Help Diagnose, Treat Biofilm Infections

September 28, 2016
Biofilms — colonies of microorganisms living inside a protective coating — are everywhere, from the plaque we scrub off our teeth each day to the slimy green masses that form on rocks in streams. They are on the inside and outside of our bodies, in our oceans, and on natural and manmade surfaces,...

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