Health Sciences Research Institute

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...

Research Breakthrough Could Help Diagnose, Treat Biofilm Infections

Biofilms — colonies of microorganisms living inside a protective coating — are everywhere, from the plaque we scrub off our teeth each day to the slimy green masses that form on rocks in streams....

Study Links Cancer Cell Growth to Nervous System

Cancer cells divide with more frequency and are more resilient when they are closer to the brain, indicating a potential link between cell growth and the nervous system, according to new research...

NIH Funds Research Into Stem Cells, Bone Disease

A new study from UC Merced Professor Jennifer O. Manilay promises to shed new light on how bone diseases can affect the maintenance of healthy blood and immune cell development throughout life....

Researcher Works to End HIV Stigma in Ethiopia, India

UC Merced lecturer Carol Sipan became concerned with the social stigma of HIV in some developing countries after a 2009 trip to Burundi, where she and a colleague from Tanzania were training pastors...

Study: In-Home Parent Training Levels Field for Low-Income Kids

Home-based interventions that teach parents to engage children in playful interactive learning activities can close the cognitive development gap between disadvantaged children and higher-resource...

Researchers Identify Drug That Could Treat Melanoma

Less than a year after mapping the genetic landscape of melanoma, a researcher from the University of California, Merced, has identified a drug that could be effective in battling the deadly skin ...

Growing Research Week Offers Events and Activities for All

The annual Research Week tabling event has more than doubled in size from last year, and that’s just one of the new and growing events featured in UC Merced’s weeklong celebration of research. More...

Researchers Find Key to Harmful Pathogen’s Transformation

A team of scientists led by UC Merced Professor Aaron D. Hernday has made a major advancement in understanding how the most common fungal pathogen in humans can alter its cellular phenotype and ...

Professor Joins Executive Board of American Physical Society

Professor Linda Hirst, with the School of Natural Sciences, has been elected to the executive council of GSOFT, the new Topical Group on Soft Matter in the American Physical Society (APS), the world'...