Biological Sciences

NIH Grant Enables Outstanding Investigator to Advance Knowledge of Microbial Infections

June 30, 2025

Professor Clarissa Nobile investigates the mechanisms of biofilm infections that affect human health.

The National Institutes of Health are backing Professor Clarissa Nobile ’s mission to understand the mechanisms by which microbes form biofilms, specifically those that can be hazardous to human health. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms encased in protective matrices and are...

Gaming Graphics Changing How Computational Science is Conducted

Professor Christine Isborn is doing quantum chemistry at the speed of graphics. Isborn is using the same graphics computer cards (graphical processing units, or GPUs) that make your Playstation...

UC Merced Researcher, Graduate Student, Contribute to Inventory of All Marine Life

Counting the number of species that live in the Earth’s oceans sounds as impossible as counting the grains of sand on a beach. But a global collaboration involving a UC Merced researcher and a...

Professor Working to Stop Melanoma in its Tracks

Professor Fabian Filipp is trying to put up roadblocks. But instead of stopping cars, he’s trying to keep cancers from growing. Filipp, a systems biology professor who started at UC Merced this fall...

UC Merced Faculty Opinion in Journal Science

Professor Mónica Medina started out as the only marine biologist in a National Science Foundation workshop last year, but she ended up with a group of new partners and an opinion piece in the...

Study Sheds Light on Bacterial Cell Division

Staph, e-coli, meningitis, MRSA and botulism are just a few of the thousands of bacterial infections that plague people all over the world. For example, almost 23,300 people in the United States were...

Researchers Spend Summer Working on Projects Near and Far

From the caves of Belize to laboratories in Japan, UC Merced faculty members and students are abroad conducting research this summer across the globe. Though the semester ended in mid-May, the campus...

Transfer Student Triumphs Over Foster Care Odds

Portia Mira considers herself lucky. Although the UC Merced senior was taken from her parents and spent five years in foster care, she said she and her sister are much better off than most. “Most...

Professor Studies Alcohol's Neurological Effects

Professor Fred Wolf’s research brings new meaning to the term barfly. In an effort to better understand the neurological effects of alcohol abuse, Wolf gives fruit flies alcohol and studies how their...

Study: Bone Density May Affect Immune System

Researchers at the University of California, Merced, have discovered a new way in which bone health impacts a person’s immune system. The discovery could impact how scientists try to combat bone-...