A third of all humans carry the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis — a disease commonly associated with cats, HIV-AIDS patients and pregnant women — with scientists long believing healthy immune systems control the parasite and prevent the disease from emerging.
In the fall semester, UC Merced Senior Lecturer Virginia Adán-Lifante offered extra credit to students who volunteered to translate a portion of the Valley Crisis Center website into Spanish.
Researchers at the University of California, Merced, have completed a comprehensive map of the genetic makeup of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. By comparing the genomes of more than 300 melanomas, the researchers were able to identify mutational hotspots that give rise to cancer.
Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of UC Merced Magazine.
Before it infects humans who breathe it in, the fungus that causes valley fever changes shapes in the environment. Once infected, some people fight it off while others die.
Professor Masashi Kitazawa wants to figure out if any environmental factors increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease – specifically, whether elevated levels of copper in drinking water play a role.
A new $2.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will fund his research, making what was a side project into a full-blown exploration.
Large, naturally occurring low-oxygen zones in the Pacific appear to be expanding, and there is a sharp change in the number of bacteria that produce and consume different forms of toxic sulfur, according to a UC Merced researcher’s latest paper in Nature Communications.
These expanding deoxygenated zones could also contribute to climate change, which, in turn, appears to contribute to their growth.
Research, te
Three UC Merced undergraduates are the recipients of a new fellowship under University of California President Ja
A third of all humans carry the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis — a disease commonly associated with cats, HIV-AIDS patients and pregnant women — with scientists long believing healthy immune systems control the parasite and prevent the disease from emerging.
In the fall semester, UC Merced Senior Lecturer 
Biochemistry Professor Patricia LiWang calls it a stroke of luck that she has become enmeshed in HIV research, but her developments are no accident.
A biology professor at the University of California, Merced, discovered mechanisms that allow a potentially fatal biofilm to spread and resist drugs.
