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Credit: Hillel AdesnikNeurobiologists determine how the brain represents both faint and intense signals
The cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the brain that plays a key role in attention, thought and consciousness, detects weak signals with remarkable sensitivity. Yet robust inputs don’t swamp the system. It’s like a speaker that can project both the faintest murmur and a torrent of sound, but how the brain manages to respond to such a wide dynamic range had puzzled neurobiologists.
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Noriyuki NishimuraNoriyuki Nishimura Wins 2009 Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award
Noriyuki Nishimura, a postdoctoral fellow working in Julian Schroeder’s laboratory, is one of three winners of the 2009 Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award from the Bayer Science and Education Foundation. Nishimura won his award, which is designed to support talented young research scientists at an early stage of their academic career and comes with 10,000 EUR, in the “biology” category for his co-identification and characterization of specific stress hormone receptors in plants.
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Jim Wilhelm Receives 2009 New Scholar Award in Aging
Assistant Professor Jim Wilhelm has received a 2009 New Scholar Award in Aging from the Ellison Medical Foundation. The awards provide $100,000 per year for four years for newly independent investigators who have been nominated by U.S. medical institutions and universities for their outstanding promise in aging research. The awards are intended to allow bright young scientists to staff their laboratories, collect preliminary data and organize research programs of sufficient momentum to obtain ongoing support from other sources. Wilhelm's award is for the "role of RNA granules in stem cell maintenance during aging and resistance to oxidative stress."
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Shape of a hormone sensor helps biologists understand how plants survive drought
A team of biologists led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego has determined the structure of a critical molecule that helps plants survive during droughts. Understanding the inner workings of this molecule may help scientists design new ways to protect crops against prolonged dry periods, potentially improving crop yields worldwide, aiding biofuels production on marginal lands and mitigating drought’s human and economic costs, the scientists say.
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Scientists Discover Protein Receptor for Carbonation Taste
In 1767, chemist Joseph Priestley stood in his laboratory one day with an idea to help English mariners stay healthy on long ocean voyages. He infused water with carbon dioxide to create an effervescent liquid that mimicked the finest mineral waters consumed at European health spas. Priestley’s man-made tonic, which he urged his benefactors to test aboard His Majesty’s ships, never prevented a scurvy outbreak. But, as the decades passed, his carbonated water became popular in cities and towns for its enjoyable taste and later as the main ingredient of sodas, sparkling wines, and all variety of carbonated drinks.
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Division Congratulates Nobel Winning Alum
The Division of Biological Sciences congratulates Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, a co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Ramakrishnan was a graduate student in biology at UCSD from 1976 to 1978, working with Biology Professor Mauricio Montal, studying the biochemistry of cell membranes. Ramakrishnan received the Nobel for his "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."
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Genes controlling insulin can alter timing of biological clock
Many of the genes that regulate insulin also alter the timing of the circadian clock, a new study has found.
Although insulin responses were known to follow daily rhythms, the finding that components of the insulin-control system can reset the body’s clock surprised the study’s authors and suggests new approaches to treating disorders such as metabolic syndrome that can result, at least in part, from chronic disruption of the sleep-wake cycle.
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In normal worms, the “touch” neuron stops short of the worm’s nose.Neurobiologists identify an essential protein for axon regrowth in animal model
Neurobiologists working with Yishi Jin at UC San Diego have shown that a protein called DLK-1 helps axons find their way and form proper connections once they reach the correct destination. DLK-1 works through a short chain of chemical signals that preserve the recipe for a particular protein. Jin and Andrew Chisholm, both biology professors at UC San Diego, and their co-authors report their finding this week in the journal Cell.
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Students Travel to Panama for Research Expedition
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster may be the insect counterpart to the lab mouse: so useful a genetic model that it has become ubiquitous in biology labs. But it’s just one species of thousands that fit into specific ecological niches by specializing in particular fruits or plants or even mushrooms. “Fruit flies have much to teach us about the genetics of adaptation and the origins of biodiversity,” said biology professor Teri Markow. And nowhere is biodiversity greater than in the tropics. Markow has just embarked on an expedition to Panama with a team of undergraduate students from three UC campuses. Follow along as they collect flies, study their ecology, and blog about their experiences.
