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Assistant Professor Stacey Combes and colleagues put tiny QR codes on the backs of bumblebees to reveal their social lives. The system--called BEEtag--allows researcher to track the movements of hundreds of bees in a hive through the day and night.

During her second year of undergraduate research in the lab of Aldrin Gomes, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, Emily Eijansantos felt ready for a solo project. She’d spent her sophomore year learning the lab’s techniques and shadowing more experienced undergraduates. She felt prepared. But like many things in life, the project—studying ibuprofen’s effects on heart cells—had its hurdles. 

Scientist or Mom? It shouldn't be an either/or choice. In Scientific American Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez shares her story to raise a voice for career mothers in STEM.

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Associate Professor Stacey Combes has long been fascinated by how animals move. In her lab, she uses high-speed imaging at 1,000 to 5,000 frames per second to reveal the behaviors and physiological traits that shape insect behavior and survival. One thing she’s learned is that bees, which are critically important pollinators, are actually quite clumsy.

Congratulations to Taylor Follansbee, who received the Hermann Handwerker prize at the 9th World Congress on Itch, held in Wroclaw, Poland October 15-17, 2017. The Hermann Handwerker prize, named after a famous itch researcher, is awarded to a junior researcher who is judged to give the best scientific presentation at the biennial World Congress on Itch. The title of Taylor's presentation was: "Effects of itch and pain stimuli on rostral ventromedial medullary ON and OFF cells". The prize comes with a monetary award of $3,000.

While the definitive causes remain unclear, several genetic and environmental factors increase the likelihood of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a group of conditions covering a “spectrum” of symptoms, skills and levels of disability.

Kimberley McAllister, a professor in the Departments of Neurology in the School of Medicine and Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior in the College of Biological Sciences has been appointed permanent director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to understanding brain function in health and illness. 

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Researchers have known for more than a decade that the risk of heart disease and stroke increases when people take pain relievers like ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. Now, scientists from Dr. Aldrin Gomes' lab have uncovered some of the reasons why these drugs can harm heart tissue.

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Listen to the UC Davis interview with Dr. Gomes.

In experimental research, scientists tend to assume that — unless they are looking specifically at reproduction or sexual behavior — male and female animals are alike, and mostly use males. But a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of New Hampshire, published April 18 in Scientific Reports, shows surprisingly big differences in tissue gene expression between male and female rock doves.

 In people with type I diabetes, insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas die and are not replaced. Without these cells, the body loses the ability to control blood glucose. Researchers at the University of California, Davis have now discovered a possible new route to regenerating beta cells, giving insight into the basic mechanisms behind healthy metabolism and diabetes.