The discovery by Elena Grintsevich, Emil Reisler, and their collaborators from the University of Texas, was recently featured in Nature Cell Biology.  Numerous cellular functions depend on actin filament (F-actin) disassembly. Their research uncovered a key link to targeted F-actin disassembly by finding that F-actin is efficiently dismantled through a post-translational-mediated synergism between cofilin and […]

This summer, six students from three Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) will contribute to UCLA research projects.  The goal of the Summer Research and Admission Pathways Program is to introduce bright undergraduates to UCLA, give them an opportunity to engage in ground breaking science, prepare them for graduate school, and attract them back for […]

Members of the department and the UCLA community gathered to celebrate the retirement of biochemistry professor Richard Weiss and MIC director Jane Strouse. More than 60 people attended the reception in their honor in the Young Hall Student Center and Lounge on June 24th.  In her remarks at the event, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate […]

To conclude the Faculty Spotlight series of our newly tenured faculty (Bouchard, Quinlan & Torres), this week’s feature focuses on Professor Jorge Torres. Torres received his B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1998, where he conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Eduardo Orias. He […]

Professors Jim Bowie, Patrick Harran and Yung-Ya Lin have agreed to serve as the new Vice Chairs of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Bowie will serve as Vice Chair of Academic Personnel, Harran will serve as Vice Chair of Graduate Education and Lin will serve as Vice Chair of Undergraduate Education.   “Jim, Patrick, […]

Craig Merlic, head of the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety (UCCLS), led the investigation of a lab explosion at the University of Hawai’i.  The March 16, 2016 blast caused a postdoctoral researcher to lose an arm and about $800,000 in damage to the lab in the Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) at UH Mānoa. The […]

The significant invention by Yves Rubin & coworkers was recently reported in the first issue of Chem, a new journal published by Cell Press. Prof. Yves Rubin and his coworkers conceived and executed a new synthetic approach to graphene nanoribbons, which are considered the next generation material for semiconductor logic or optoelectronic applications, but still […]

The second in our Faculty Spotlight series of newly tenured faculty (Bouchard, Quinlan & Torres), this week’s feature focuses on Professor Margot Quinlan. Quinlan obtained her B.A. at Reed College in 1991. She then spent two years in Germany doing research at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg. She went to graduate school at the University of […]