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Low-Wage Work Is Linked to Spread of COVID-19, Study Finds

July 21, 2020
California counties with high numbers of low-wage workers are seeing higher incidence of COVID-19, suggesting a link between so-called “worker distress” and spread of the virus, according to a new study by UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center. While efforts to contain COVID-19 have centered on...

New Project Aims to Advance Understanding of Immune Cells as they Develop

July 20, 2020
Maybe now more than ever, scientists need to understand the immune system. A new National Institutes of Health grant is funding a cross-disciplinary collaboration between bioengineering Professor Joel Spencer and immunology Professor Jennifer Manilay that will allow them to watch as immune-...

Study Reveals How Chemicals in Flame Retardants Interfere with Brain Development

June 15, 2020
Many of the items people use in their everyday lives, from baby clothes and Halloween costumes to furniture, are doused with chemical flame retardants designed to make the items safer. But a new study from Cellular and Molecular Biology Professor Ramendra Saha and his former Ph.D. student Robert...

Researcher Offers Guide to Coping with COVID-related Stress, Part II

June 10, 2020
Professor Matthew Zawadzki is with the Department of Psychological Sciences in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. His research examines social psychological processes as applied to health. This is the second of two parts. These are unusual times. In the midst of a pandemic that has...

Bacteria Use the Physics of Twist to Measure Their Own Size and Shape

June 9, 2020
Theoretical physics Professor Ajay Gopinathan has been working over the past decade to model a submicroscopic mystery. Now, he and a team of colleagues have verified an important piece of the puzzle of how tiny, intrinsically twisted protein filaments responsible for repairing and growing cells...

Researcher Provides Helpful Guide to Coping with Stressful Times, Part I

June 3, 2020
Professor Matthew Zawadzki is with the Department of Psychological Sciences in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. His research examines social psychological processes as applied to health. This is the first of a two-part discussion. These are unusual times. In the midst of a...

Human Waste Treatment Helps Solve Climate-Change Puzzle, New Study Shows

June 1, 2020
About 4.5 billion people around the globe do not have access to adequate sanitation, and what they do have — typically pit latrines and lagoons — are responsible for widespread illnesses and a portion of the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. UC Merced Professor Rebecca Ryals and a...

UC Merced Part of CITRIS’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants

May 14, 2020
UC Merced professors are leading or participating in four technology projects designed to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute awarded seed grants to 25 interdisciplinary, multi-campus teams to...

At the Intersection of Math and Biology, Sindi Lab Sees a Breakthrough in Prion Disease

May 4, 2020
A UC Merced researcher and her lab have unlocked one of the mysteries that could lead to treatments — or even cures — for prion diseases in mammals. Prion diseases are a family of rare, progressive neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans — such as with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or fatal...

COVID-19 More Likely to Impact Smokers and People Exposed to Secondhand Smoke, Report Finds

April 2, 2020
Smokers and former smokers are not only more susceptible to COVID-19, they are far more likely to see their conditions worsen over time and to require intensive respiratory assistance, according to a review released Thursday by the UC Merced Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center (NCPC). Furthermore...

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