Spotlight
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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.
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UCSD Division of Biological Sciences/ Salk Institute Annual Retreat
Lake Arrowhead Resort
Lake Arrowhead, CA
Date: September 20 - 22, 2009
Registration Deadline: Friday, August 14th
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Biological Sciences Seminar Program
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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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Discovery Could Help Stem Infections of Parasitic Roundworms
Working with researchers in China, biologists at UC San Diego have discovered how a Chinese drug effective in killing parasitic roundworms works.
Their discovery of the drug’s biological mechanism provides important new information about how to combat parasitic roundworms, which infect more than a billion people in tropical regions and are one of the leading causes of debilitation in underdeveloped countries. The researchers detail their findings in the current issue of the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
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