The NSF CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines was established with a $5 million Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) grant in 2016 from the National Science Foundation. The CCBM brings together more than 30 faculty members from multiple units across campus, including bioengineering, physics, chemistry and chemical biology, biomaterials science and engineering, cell and molecular biology, and applied mathematics. The center received an additional $5 million in 2021 for another 5 years of funding. Researchers are studying how biological matter like proteins or cells come together to perform specific tasks, in hopes of eventually being able to engineer and develop innovations ranging from designer cells and tissue to novel diagnostic and therapeutic devices. The CCBM also hosts an integrated, interdisciplinary training program for graduate students that emphasizes physical and biological components, research and training experiences for undergraduate and high school students to enhance the recruitment of underrepresented groups into STEM research, and outreach experiences for the local community and beyond.
Researchers at UC Merced used fruit flies to uncover a cellular process common to many organisms that could dramatically impact the understanding of cancer and aging. Department of Molecular and Cell...
In Professor Xuecai Ge ’s lab, where UC Merced researchers study how cells talk to each other to develop and differentiate, a recent surprise discovery is lending insight as to how erroneous cell...
The National Science Foundation awarded a team, led by principal investigators Professor Ajay Gopinathan and Carrie Kouadio, funding to establish a summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (...
Merced area fourth- and fifth-grade girls and their mothers recently participated in hands-on scientific projects in a UC Merced classroom laboratory that was transformed for one day into an exciting...
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