Mind & Body

Vaping Produces a Chemical that Destroys Human Tissue, Research Shows

August 7, 2025

In addition to being used recreationally, marijuana and cannabidiol, or CBD, one of the cannabinoids produced by the marijuana plant, are thought to have medical benefits such as helping with chemotherapy-induced nausea, treating epilepsy, relieving pain and helping with a variety of mental health...

UC Merced Part of CITRIS’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants

UC Merced professors are leading or participating in four technology projects designed to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (...

At the Intersection of Math and Biology, Sindi Lab Sees a Breakthrough in Prion Disease

A UC Merced researcher and her lab have unlocked one of the mysteries that could lead to treatments — or even cures — for prion diseases in mammals. Prion diseases are a family of rare...

Babies Forage for Sounds That Contribute to Language Acquisition, Study Shows

Most people wouldn’t think physics has anything to do with baby babble and human language development. But most people aren’t Ritwika Vallomparambath PanikkasserySugasree. The...

COVID-19 More Likely to Impact Smokers and People Exposed to Secondhand Smoke, Report Finds

Smokers and former smokers are not only more susceptible to COVID-19, they are far more likely to see their conditions worsen over time and to require intensive respiratory assistance, according to a...

Researchers Forge a New Weapon to Fight Parasites and Other Infections

Breakthrough collaborative science by an interdisciplinary team of researchers brought together by computational biology Professor David Ardell promises a new approach for treating all types of...

Professor Eric Walle with Penelope and her mom, Jessica Mohatt, in a scene from the new Netflix docu-series "Babies."

New "Babies" Series on Netflix Features UC Merced Professor's Research on Development

Psychology Professor Eric Walle found something interesting when he studied babies who were walking compared to those who were crawling: Babies who walk are not only more mobile, they have...

Researchers Discover Mechanism Proteins Use To Find And Control Genes

Bioengineering Professor Victor Muñoz has answered a long-standing genetic mystery, and his research suggests that someday, bioengineers could devise ways to control gene activity — manually...

Breakthrough in Stem Cell Research: First Image of Niche Environment

Professor Joel Spencer was a rising star in college soccer and now he is an emerging scientist in the world of biomedical engineering, capturing — for the first time — an image of a...

Engineered Protein Assemblies that Respond to Cues Open Path for Smart, Protein-Based Medicines

Proteins are miniscule machines inside the body, about 10,000 times smaller than the thickness of human hair. They control all the processes of life — like how cells communicate to each other,...

Research