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Lorena Anderson

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Senior Writer and Public Information Representative

Office: (209) 228-4406

Mobile: (209) 201-6255

landerson4@ucmerced.edu

NIH Grant Enables Outstanding Investigator to Advance Knowledge of Microbial Infections

The National Institutes of Health are backing Professor ’s mission to understand the mechanisms by which microbes form biofilms, specifically those that can be hazardous to human health.

Hurricanes Create Powerful Changes Deep in the Ocean, Study Reveals

With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico.

The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed and found that the storms churn the ocean so powerfully and deeply — up to thousands of meters — that nutrient-rich, cold water is brought to the surface.

Study Indicates Human-caused Dust Events are Linked to Fallow Farmland

An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and the state’s climate.

Link Between Dementia and Air Pollution Drives Research Collaboration

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 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).

Areas with severe PM2.5 pollution — including the Central Valley — are often inhabited by low-income residents who are disproportionately affected by these environmental hazards.

Study: Climate Change Extends Drought Recovery by at Least Three Months

A group of researchers at Ƶ has found that climate change means it takes about three months longer for California to recover from drought, and probably longer.

“Climate change has fundamentally changed the odds of getting out of drought. It has weighted the dice,” said , a postdoctoral scholar with the . “This is happening because of warming in summer months, and a good portion of it is because of human-caused climate change.”

Researchers Find Unexpected Cellular Residence for Protein Vital in Neurodevelopment

In Professor ’s lab, where Ƶ researchers study how cells talk to each other to develop and differentiate, a recent surprise discovery is lending insight as to how erroneous cell signals lead to disease and birth defects.

Ge and her colleagues zeroed in on a slice of the communication system, the primary cilia, and found a protein called Numb, which they didn’t expect to be there.

Numb facilitates development of the spinal cord and cerebellum during embryonic neurodevelopment.

New Center Offers Opportunities to Observe and Learn about Natural Resources

Even though the (MVPGR) is adjacent to campus, it's an area that can be daunting to access.

Last year, more than 2,000 people visited the campus to learn about this unique habitat and the animals and plants that are protected there. Guided visitors included schoolchildren on tours and researchers. Once there, for much of the year, the weather can be windy, rainy or blisteringly hot and there are no facilities where people can take shelter, use the restroom or wash their hands.

Sukenik Named Sloan Research Fellow for Pioneering Research in Protein Chemistry

has been a faculty member for only 5 1/2 years, but he has already built an impressive resume, becoming a leader in his research field, an innovator and an exceptional communicator.

Those qualities helped him become Ƶ’s first recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Sloan Research Fellowship.

Wang Curates New Traveling Exhibition of Three Trailblazing Japanese American Women

A new art exhibition curated by Professor is reintroducing the diverse art of three California painters to a national audience by bringing representative works from each together for the first time.

“” will travel to five museums across the country, including a nine-month display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.