Mind & Body

Link Between Dementia and Air Pollution Drives Research Collaboration

April 17, 2025

Students Zeyi Moo, back left, and Yaying Wang, right, work with Professor Xuan Zhang, center, on her Alzheimer's-related research. Photo courtesy of Kate Marsh.

California’s Central Valley, famous for producing much of the food Americans eat, is also infamous for its inferior air quality and its high rates of poverty, housing insecurity and at-risk workers. Increasing epidemiological evidence has shown a correlation between long-term exposure to...

Multi-well dish with pink liquid inside.

Study: Drug-Resistant Cancer Cleverer Than Imagined

Precision medicine offers hope after a life-changing cancer diagnosis. But some cancers that initially respond to targeted chemotherapy become treatment-resistant — and the tumor itself is the...

Study: Kitchen and Culture Clash When Promoting Healthy Eating to Latinos

Latinos suffer from some of the highest obesity rates in the nation. Health officials have tried to intervene with messaging that encourages healthy eating and healthy behavior, but these campaigns...

A Fruit Fly Walks Into a Bar ...

Editor’s note: Every year UC Merced shines a spotlight on the cutting-edge research underway at the university. Research Week is an opportunity for the public to explore the...

Professor Susana Ramirez in a red jacket and black-rimmed glasses stands in front of bookshelves filled with books.

Public Health Professor Honored for Early-Career Research

The American Public Health Association (APHA) presented public health Professor Susana Ramirez with the 2017 Early Career Award at its annual meeting last month. The award is handed out every year...

Four students stand in front of a poster explaining their Innovate to Grow capstone project.

Wells Fargo Gift Helps ‘Innovate to Grow’ Continue Fall Expansion

Innovate to Grow (I2G), the School of Engineering’s showcase for senior capstone projects and student ingenuity in engineering and entrepreneurship, is emerging as a twice-a-year event, thanks...

AAAS Fellow Brings Groundbreaking Genetics Research to Campus

Professor Chris Amemiya is new to UC Merced, but he’s a veteran scientist with a long list of breakthroughs to his name. Amemiya’s discoveries have changed the way scientists understand...

Process That Kills Damaged Cells Hints at New Cancer Therapies

Scientists have long known that cells originating from an animal’s anterior — the body’s upper half — tend to grow, divide and survive better than those from the posterior....

Grad Student Researches Biology Behind Political Views

If you’ve ever wondered why people stand where they do on the political spectrum, science might have at least part of the answer: People can be biologically predisposed to certain feelings...

Cognitive Scientists Find Links Between Jazz, Speech and Whale Songs

Jazz musicians riffing with each other, humans talking to each other and pods of killer whales all have interactive conversations that are remarkably similar to each other, new research reveals....

Research