UCSD Extension News Story

Hi hi again! Here's my news story about The Future of Biology event that I attended in early February hosted by the UCSD's Division of Biological Sciences. I'm still adding stuff slowly to this website, including the stories I've written for the Jacobs School of Engineering (check it out under Writing->Science at the top of the menu!).

Here we go!

Transforming Biotechnology

If using bio-degradable algae sandals aren’t in your future, think again. There’s a lot of promising tech out there, and just a little bit is being developed in the numerous biology research labs at the University of California, San Diego. The audience got a sneak peek at a smattering of these labs last Wednesday, February 5th at the kickoff seminar series called “The Future of Biology”. Each seminar, with four in total, focuses on a special area of biology and features four speakers that give quick 7-min talks summarizing their innovations. Such a series commemorates a special occasion for UC San Diego: the 60th anniversary of the University, starting right now in 2020.

“The campus is approaching its sixtieth anniversary. We decided to get a jump start and…invite the community back to San Diego” Dean of Biological Sciences Kit Pogliano said. “We’re pleased to share what we’ve been doing over the past 60 years and what the division has accomplished.”

The first speaker, Dr. Steven Mayfield, develops products and ideas where algae can play a starring role. Because algae can bio-degrade, it has the potential to be use for a myriad of things, like sandals, bio-fuels, and food.

Then the next speaker, Dr. Marty Yanofsky, talked about helping farmers increase canola seed yield ino order to produce more canola oil. For years, farmers have been frustrated that canola seeds - which contain about 50% oil – are usually lost after the shell that contains them snaps open and drops them to the ground before they can be recovered. It’s a rough process that forces farmers to put in much more time into getting a product. However, Yanofsky’s lab has taken advantage of gene editing using their knowledge of a close cousin of canola, Arapidopsis, to develop a shell that will not snap open.

But the new technology guiding biology doesn’t stop there. Elizabeth Villa, a third-year Ph.D student, took the stage next to talk about the little cells that gobble up foreign ones in your body: macrophages. These cells form one line of defense when unknown particles enter your immune system; Villa is researching how these cells fine-tune themselves to adapt to these cells coming in. Like how a coach will individually help their players train to their own strengths, Villa likens it to learning how to find what the right combination of stimuli a group of macrophages need to be most optimal. That kind of discovery takes refinement, like tuning a cocktail to have the right mix of ingredients.

Last but not least, Dr. Beverly Naigles showed off what new imagining technologies and freezing can do to help researchers visualize the inner workings of cells. She talked about a special technique called CRYO-TEM, or transmission electron cryomicroscopy, to take many pictures of different orientations of cells and develop a whole model of what a cell’s inside look like at different snapshots at the same. It’s useful for understanding diseases like Parkinson’s Disease works.