Many people know that soda and sweets aren’t a healthy choice of food, but did you know that a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning? This news comes from a study at UCLA where a team zeroed in on high-fructose corn syrup, something the average American consumes more than [...]

To better understand why functional molecules in our bodies almost always occur in just one chiral form, UCLA scientists sought to discover how chirality occurs. By using lithography to create microscale particles, the researchers found that entropy and particle shape are enough to cause chirality to appear spontaneously in dense systems. The overwhelming majority of [...]

Neuroscientists from UCLA have developed a system to measure communication between stem cell–derived motor neurons and muscle cells in a Petri dish. They hope that they can use this method to better understand neurodegenerative diseases and to explore what happens in the early stages of motor neuron disease. In an effort to identify the underlying [...]

UCLA engineers have taken online crowd-sourcing a step further. By creating a crowd-sourced online gaming system in which players distinguish malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones by viewing digital images obtained from microscopes, UCLA researchers found that small groups of non-experts working together were able to diagnosis malaria-infected red blood cells much like a [...]

Bioengineers at UCLA developed a deformability cytometer to better understand the physical properties of cells, which may prove very useful in the fight against diseases such as cancer. The device works by slamming cells against a wall of fluid and quickly analyzing the physical response, allowing for the identification of cell states without expensive chemical [...]

In an effort to increase global awareness and to better detect signs of infectious diseases around the world, engineers at UCLA have developed a compact and cost-effective RDT-reading device that works in tandem with standard cell phones. In the fight against emerging public health threats, early diagnosis of infectious diseases is crucial. And in poor [...]

Based on a genetic analysis of more than 9,000 people, a new study shows that four genes may speed shrinkage of the hippocampus in the brain and could lead to an increased risk to Alzheimer’s disease. This study, and another on genetic variants of intracranial volume, may lead to new findings that help doctors better [...]

A new study shows that genetically engineered stem cells can be used as HIV-fighting cells. Researchers at UCLA were able to expand on previous research and demonstrated for the first time stem cells engineered to form immune cells that target HIV are effective in suppressing the virus in living tissues. Expanding on previous research providing [...]

Researchers now have a better understanding of how dendritic cells address specific types of infections. By using a protein called NOD2, the scientists were able to identify a potent infection-fighting pathway with dendritic cells, which is important in fighting disease. UCLA researchers have pinpointed a new mechanism that potently activates T cells, the group of [...]

Report of a new method for directly measuring the atomic structure of nanomaterials was published today in the journal Nature. By taking measurements at 69 different angles and combining the data collected from each individual shadow into a 3-D reconstruction of the interior of the nanoparticle, the researchers can directly see local structures in 3-D [...]

By coating a DVD disc with a film of graphite oxide that is then laser treated inside a LightScribe DVD drive to produce graphene electrodes, researchers were able to demonstrate high-performance graphene-based electrochemical capacitors that can be charged and discharged a hundred to a thousand times faster than conventional batteries. Electrochemical capacitors (ECs), also known [...]

While studying the common fruit fly, UCLA stem cell researchers found that blood stem cells are receiving systemic signals from insulin and nutritional factors, which helped them from differentiating into blood cells. UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that insulin and nutrition prevent blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in Drosophila, the [...]