E-Mail
Every so often the work of an early career researcher becomes so important, it captures the attention of their professional peers. Recognizing these young scholars of outstanding promise, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awards Sloan Research Fellowships to support their future breakthroughs and careers as leaders in their fields.
This year, three of those 128 early-career innovators come from UC Santa Barbara. I congratulate Sung Soo Kim, Fedor Manin and Timothy Brandt on this exceptional honor, said Pierre Wiltzius, dean of mathematical, physical and life sciences. With these fellowships, they join a rarefied group of 126 extraordinarily talented young scholars whose research shows great promise. I look forward to learning about the valuable discoveries these awards will support.
In a study led by National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers, scientists found that five genes may play a critical role in determining whether a person will suffer from Lewy body dementia, a devastating disorder that riddles the brain with clumps of abnormal protein deposits called Lewy bodies. The results also supported the disorder s ties to Parkinson s and Alzheimer diseases.
Yale University today announced that a historic philanthropic gift will launch an ambitious new research enterprise devoted to the study of human cognition. The gift, from Yale alumnus Joseph C. Tsai 86, 90 J.D., and his wife, Clara Wu Tsai, establishes an innovative research organization that will bridge the psychological, biological, and computational sciences and pursue a mission to understand human cognition and explore human potential by sparking interdisciplinary inquiry.
Loading video.
VIDEO: A diverse collections of simulated nanobodies bind to different parts of a protein antigen. view more
Credit: Zhe Sang
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2021 - By capitalizing on a convergence of chemical, biological and artificial intelligence advances, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have developed an unusually fast and efficient method for discovering tiny antibody fragments with big potential for development into therapeutics against deadly diseases.
The technique, published today in the journal
Cell Systems, is the same process the Pitt team used to extract tiny SARS-CoV-2 antibody fragments from llamas, which could become an inhalable COVID-19 treatment for humans. This approach has the potential to quickly identify multiple potent nanobodies that target different parts of a pathogen thwarting variants.
Sounds appear to change the brain’s wiring patterns that process sound earlier than assumed
Scientists have yet to answer the age-old question of whether or how sound shapes the minds of fetuses in the womb, and expectant mothers often wonder about the benefits of such activities as playing music during pregnancy. Now, in experiments in newborn mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins report that sounds appear to change wiring patterns in areas of the brain that process sound earlier than scientists assumed and even before the ear canal opens.
The current experiments involve newborn mice, which have ear canals that open 11 days after birth. In human fetuses, the ear canal opens prenatally, at about 20 weeks gestation.