Researchers at the Sanford/Burnham Institute for Medical Research at UCSB have identified a peptide that specifically recognizes and penetrates cancerous tumors but not normal tissues. The peptide was also shown to deliver diagnostic particles and medicines into the tumor. This new peptide, called iRGD, could dramatically enhance both cancer detection and treatment. Led by MCDB Distinguished Burnham Professor Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., this research built on Dr.
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Dec 3, 2009
A team led by MCDB Professor Dennis Clegg and Pete Coffey, of University College London (UCL) has rescued visual function in laboratory rats with eye disease by using cells similar to stem cells. The research shows the potential for stem cell-based therapies to treat age-related macular degeneration in humans.
Oct 24, 2009
Study finds how proteins self assemble to reflect different wavelengths of light.
Oct 5, 2009
Carol W. Greider, a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Greider shares the Nobel with Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak. The three were honored for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. While a UCSB undergraduate in the College of Creative Studies, Dr. Greider did research in the lab of MCDB Professor Les Wilson, and after graduating went on to do her prize-winning Ph.D. work with Elizabeth Blackburn at U.C. Berkeley.
Aug 27, 2009
The green mussel is known for being a notoriously invasive fouling species, but researchers in the lab of MCDB & Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Herb Waite have discovered that it also has a very powerful form of adhesion in its foot. The stickiness of the mussel's foot could possibly be copied to form new man-made adhesives.
Aug 4, 2009
New work from the laboratory of MCDB Professor Zach Ma has found an unsuspected role for a protein previously known to be a nuclear protein that modifies gene expression. The protein, mDpy-30, is a component of histone lysine methyltransferase complexes that modify chromatin structure and increase or decrease expression of genes. The Ma lab found that mDpy-30 is located not only in the nucleus of cells but also is found in the trans-Golgi network.
Apr 30, 2009
A team lead by MCDB professor Ken Kosik has made a significant discovery in understanding the way human embryonic stem cells function. New research by CIRM-funded postdoctoral scholar Na Xu, working with UCSB Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering Co-Director James Thomson, explain nature's way of controlling whether stem cells will renew, or differentiate to become a brain cell or heart cell, or any other part of the human body. The study is reported in the May 1 issue of the journal Cell.
Jan 30, 2009
UC Santa Barbara has received a $1.2 million training grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to continue an interdisciplinary training program in stem cell biology and engineering. The three-year grant will make it possible for pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students to participate in groundbreaking research in two broad but interrelated areas: the fundamental molecular biology of stem cell proliferation and differentiation, and bioengineering approaches to develop novel biotechnologies for stem cell research.
