Ten researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have been included in the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers list compiled by Clarivate Analytics, which was previously part of Thomson Reuters. The list includes the 6,167 most frequently cited researchers in the physical and social sciences, recognized as “researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field.”...
Faculty at the University of California, Riverside, have received grants from the University of California-Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative, or UC-HSI DDI, to increase diversity in the sciences. Khaleel Razak, a professor of psychology, has received funding of nearly $50,000 for a project titled “Increasing Faculty Diversity in Neuroscience.” The grant will allow Razak...
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have used machine learning to identify hundreds of new potential drugs that could help treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. “There is an urgent need to identify effective drugs that treat or prevent COVID-19,” said Anandasankar Ray, a professor of molecular, cell, and...
A UC Riverside research team is among 20 groups receiving funding to investigate problems related to COVID-19. Elena Kozlova, a doctoral student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, is working with Margarita Curras-Collazo, an associate professor of neuroscience, on the project.
A pair of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, has used machine learning to understand what a chemical smells like — a research breakthrough with potential applications in the food flavor and fragrance industries. “We now can use artificial intelligence to predict how any chemical is going to smell to humans,” said Anandasankar Ray...
Manuela Martins-Green, chair of the Department of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology at UC Riverside, has received the 2020 Oliver Johnson Award for Distinguished Leadership in the Academic Senate. The award is the highest honor given out by the University of California, bestowed biennially to a member of the UC faculty who has performed outstanding...
Prue Talbot, a professor of cell biology at UC Riverside, has received a seed grant to study the COVID-19-related infection of respiratory cells. She and her team will use the funds to test the hypothesis that electronic cigarettes and nicotine increase the ACE2 receptor on respiratory epithelium, providing more binding sites for the virus and...
A study examining the effect of the immune receptor known as Toll-like Receptor 4, or TLR4, on how memory functions in both the normal and injured brain has found vastly different cellular pathways contribute to the receptor’s effects on excitability in the uninjured and injured brain. Further, the researchers found novel mechanisms for how TLR4...
A research team led by a scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has found that brains treated with certain drugs within a few days of an injury have a dramatically reduced risk of developing epilepsy later in life. The development of epilepsy is a major clinical complication after brain injury, and the disease can...
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have completed a cross-sectional human study that compares biomarkers and metal concentrations in the urine of e-cigarette users, nonsmokers, and cigarette smokers. They found that the biomarkers, which reflect exposure, effect, and potential harm, are both elevated in e-cigarette users compared to the other groups and linked to...
Scientists have made a major breakthrough in understanding how the parasite that causes malaria is able to multiply at such an alarming rate, which could be a vital clue in discovering how it has evolved and how it can be stopped. For the first time, scientists have shown how certain molecules play an essential role...
New UC Riverside research shows soybean oil not only leads to obesity and diabetes, but could also affect neurological conditions like autism, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, and depression. Used for fast food frying, added to packaged foods, and fed to livestock, soybean oil is by far the most widely produced and consumed edible oil in the...
A biochemist at the University of California, Riverside, has received a grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, or CDMRP, of the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a novel lead compound to treat breast cancer, the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women. John Jefferson Perry, an assistant professor of biochemistry, is...
Comparative 3D genome organization in apicomplexan parasites Significance From yeast to human cells, genome organization in eukaryotes has a tight relationship with gene expression. We investigated the 3D organization of chromosomes in malaria parasites to identify possible connections between genome architecture and pathogenicity. Genome organization was dominated by the clustering of Plasmodium-specific gene families in...
An international research team led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology has found that malaria parasite genomes are shaped by parasite-specific gene families, and that this genome organization strongly correlates with the parasite’s virulence. The findings highlight the importance of spatial genome organization in gene regulation...