NRI-Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology Microscopy Facility

A sticky breakthrough http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/016178/sticky-breakthrough

A Sticky Breakthrough UC Santa Barbara researchers make strides in their quest to develop an underwater adhesive

Accounting for Taste
http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/016137/accounting-taste

Accounting for Taste Craig Montell finds that fruit fly gustatory receptors that sense a noxious compound is a cation channel

Tissue Cartography Today’s state-of-the-art optical microscopes produce voluminous three-dimensional data sets that are difficult to analyze. Now, two postdoctoral scholars from UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) have developed a means of reducing data size and processing by orders of ma…

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/016021/seeing-new-light

Seeing in a New Light Craig Montell’s lab has made new discoveries at the cellular and molecular levels about how the eye processes light

Controlling Mosquito Pests Craig Montell receives $2.5 million NIH Pioneer Award for a highly innovative project to curtail insect-borne diseases

Congratulations to Craig Montell, who was just announced as a recipient of a 2015 NIH Director's Pioneer Award. The Pioneer Award was created for " supporting individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research." Craig's proposal, "Creation of a
New Generation of Transgenic Mosquitoes to Control Infectious Disease" is an innovative approach to significantly increasing the effectiveness of mosquito control strategies by altering male mosquito s*x drive. This is the second year in a row that an MCDB faculty member has been honored with this prestigious award: Denise Montell received a 2014 Pioneer Award for her project " Anastasis, a new mechanism driving cell survival and evolution ".

Stephen Poole
Chair, Dept. of Molec., Cell, & Devel. Biology

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/015918/brain-trust

A Brain Trust Two years ago, the federal government launched the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, a large-scale partnership between public and private research institutions designed to catalyze discovery and innovation in neuroengineering. Rising to the challenge,…

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/015948/brain-networking

Brain Networking Researchers use brain scans to determine the mechanism behind cognitive control of thoughts

success! http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/015943/new-macular-degeneration-treatment

A New Treatment for Macular Degeneration A successful clinical trial uses stem cell-derived ocular cells to treat a form of age-related macular degeneration

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/015893/predicting-neural-toxicity

Predicting Neural Toxicity Scientists have developed a faster, cheaper and more biologically relevant way to screen drugs and chemicals that could harm the develo

Botryllus schlosseri

Molecular evolution and in vitro characterization of Botryllus histocompatibility factor - Springer Botryllus schlosseri is a colonial ascidian with a natural ability to anastomose with another colony to form a vascular and hematopoietic chimera. In order to fuse, two individuals must share at least one allele at the highly polymorphic fuhc locus. Otherwise, a blood-based inflammatory response wil…

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-startups-invited-compete-chance-300000-award-money?mc_cid=0376021704&mc_eid=681a6043ee

UC startups invited to compete for chance at $300,000 in award money PrimeUC is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC to give one $150,000 award and three $50,000 awards to companies with early-stage innovations related to therapeutics, consumer health, medical devices and diagnostics.