UCSC scientists find microplastics in Monterey Bay water, anchovies, and seabirds
Microparticles recovered from some seabirds exhibited estrogenic activity with potential to disrupt hormone functions
Student researchers investigate toxic lead exposure in golden eagles
A gift from the Webster Foundation to UCSC’s Predatory Bird Research Group supports student interns helping to study lead poisoning in eagles and monitor peregrine falcons
UCSC graduate student wins HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study
Gilliam Fellowships support exceptional graduate students and their advisers who are committed to increasing diversity among scientific leaders.
Microbiologist Jacqueline Kimmey named Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences
Kimmey’s lab is investigating how susceptibility to infections is influenced by the daily biological cycles known as circadian rhythms.
Seed funding grants for early-stage research, creative projects given to 19 awardees
The UCSC Office of Research has awarded funds this month to 19 projects through its inaugural Seed Funding for Early Stage Initiatives program.
Manel Camps appointed faculty director of UCSC Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development
UC Santa Cruz has appointed Manel Camps, professor of microbiology and environmental toxicology and provost of Crown College, to serve as the director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development
New cryo-electron microscopy facility a boon for UCSC structural biologists
With major funding from NIH, researchers at UC Santa Cruz have acquired powerful imaging tools for studying the structures of biomolecules and their roles in disease.
Cholera studies reveal mechanisms of biofilm formation & hyperinfectivity
Free-swimming cholera bacteria are much less infectious than bacteria in biofilms, aggregates of bacterial cells embedded in a sticky matrix that form on surfaces.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
How a Santa Cruz toxicologist helped push through a ban on lead ammunition in California
Having linked the ammunition to condor poisonings, Myra Finkelstein is now turning her attention to other toxic threats for birds.
Original story from c&en.
Heavy metal exposure changes songbird behavior
Great tits that live near a smelter show personality differences from those living further away.
Tuna study spearheads changes in dining halls
KAZU — UC Santa Cruz is warning students about the dangers of eating too much tuna following a university study. The study started with one professor, Myra Finkelstein, questioning her students’ tuna-rich diets. Tuna consumption among her students became a concern when she found out how much they claimed to be eating every week.
Postdoc Hanh Lam awarded prestigious NIH grant
UCSC Newscenter — The grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will support Lam’s ongoing research to develop novel therapeutics to combat infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterial pathogen that is often resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Lam’s work in the lab of METX Professor Victoria Auerbuch Stone uses a combination of experimental and bioinformatic approaches to target this top priority pathogen.