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.