Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mapping RNA-Protein ‘Chats’ Could Uncover New Treatments for Cancer and Brain Disease

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · 1d

Bioengineers built a technology that maps every RNA-protein interaction inside human cells. By identifying the interactions that go awry in diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, researchers could design drugs to block the harmful ones or boost the protective ones. today.ucsd.edu/story/mappin...

A technology that maps entire networks of RNA-protein interactions inside human cells could offer new strategies for treating diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's.

From Lebanon’s Vineyards to Vision Restoration - Qualcomm Institute

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · 9d

Our new #AI major is here! About 200 students enrolled in the inaugural class. The major resides in our Department of Computer Science and Engineering, with partnerships from across campus.
today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san...
@ucsandiego.bsky.social
#artificialintelligence #computerscienceeducation

Group picture of students holding up a banner that says "artificial intelligence"

4

Reposted by UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Qualcomm Institute @qi-ucsd.bsky.social · Sep 8

Shadi Dayeh at @jacobsschool.bsky.social and #UCSD #QualcommInstitute is fusing engineering and medicine to map the brain and restore vision. His lab develops flexible neural interfaces and leads whole-eye transplantation research: tinyurl.com/5xvm6rmh #UCSD #neurotechnology #visionrestoration

At UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute and Jacobs School of Engineering, Shadi Dayeh leads bold research from brain-computer interfaces to pioneering optic nerve transplants.

tinyurl.com

1 2

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · 15d

Step inside the brand-new @ucsandiego.bsky.social Bioengineering Instructional Lab spaces, which are ready for students this fall! Bioengineering lab courses will benefit from a larger, sleeker space, while bioengineering design projects will come to life in a cutting-edge makerspace.

1 6

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · 27d

@ucsandiego.bsky.social professor Nick Gravish is part of an NSF-funded network of researchers in mechano-computation: www.meche.engineering.cmu.edu/news/2025/09...
#robotics #biomimicry

Building a collaborative network of researchers in mechano-computation

Building a collaborative network of researchers in mechano-computation - Mechanical Engineering

www.meche.engineering.cmu.edu

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · 28d

A nonhormonal material could alleviate the negative impacts of menopause. The newly created hydrogel could combat genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM), which negatively impacts quality of life for millions of women.
today.ucsd.edu/story/non-ho...
#bioengineering #menopause #womenshealth

Imagine of vaginal menopausal rat tissue treated with a non-hormonal hydrogel

13 Bizarre Deep Sea Animals That Are Stranger (and Cooler) Than Science Fiction

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Sep 5

Henrik Christensen, director of the @ucsandiego.bsky.social Contextual Robotics Institute, talks about his research projects and the future of AI in this interview with the @Association for the Advancement of Automation: www.automate.org/videos/how-r...

4

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Sep 4

The deep-sea #dragonfish is considered one of the scary, monstrous creatures of the ocean. It was also the subject of a #bioinspired research project by @ucsandiego.bsky.social #materials scientists that studied the properties of its transparent teeth! www.zmescience.com/feature-post...

Deep sea creatures are remarkably well adapted to their hellish environment. So why do we parade them as bizarre and weird?

www.zmescience.com

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Sep 3

👏👏👏

UC San Diego @ucsandiego.bsky.social · Sep 2

For the fifth year in a row, UC San Diego is ranked the No. 3 public university in the nation by @forbes.com Forbes also recognized UC San Diego among the nation’s best, ranking us No. 20 overall, moving up from last year’s ranking. 💫💙

🔗 bit.ly/4neYEQ4

#UCSanDiego #UCSD

Graphic for UC San Diego, titled "#3 Public University" by Forbes' 2026 America's Top Colleges, featuring a view of the campus with vibrant purple flowers in the foreground and a bright blue sky above.

Extreme Experiments on Perovskite May Offer Insight Into Earth’s Interior and Deep Earthquakes

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Sep 3

Congratulations to @ucsandiego.bsky.social #computerscience faculty Hao Su, who received a #frontiersofscience award!
jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/release...

1 5

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Aug 28

Materials scientists used high power laser shock compression on a #perovskite mineral to recreate the extreme pressures and temperatures deep inside the Earth. The findings provide new insights into the processes that drive earthquakes deep beneath Earth’s surface. today.ucsd.edu/story/extrem...

Materials scientists have performed powerful laser shock experiments on a perovskite mineral to better understand the geophysical processes in Earth's deep interior and the mechanisms behind earthquak...

The Jacobs School Represents at San Diego Comic-Con

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Aug 25

From #robotics to #AI, the Jacobs School represented at this year's San Diego Comic-Con! Check out the videos of the panels our researchers were on this year!
jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/release...
@ucsandiego.bsky.social ‪@sandiegocomic-con.bsky.social‬

#sdcc

jacobsschool.ucsd.edu

Researchers Identify Weak Points in Diamond Fusion Fuel Capsules

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Aug 20

Scientists show how #diamond — a material used to encase fuel for #fusion experiments — can develop tiny structural flaws that may limit fusion performance. The findings can help guide improved capsule designs & models to maximize #energy output of fusion experiments. today.ucsd.edu/story/resear...

Materials scientists at UC San Diego have uncovered how diamond — the material used to encase fuel for fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Lawrence Livermore National Laborat...

Nucleation processes at interfaces with both substrate and electrolyte control lithium growth - Nature Chemistry

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Aug 15

Making lithium-metal #batteries last longer depends largely on controlling how #lithium nucleates & grows on the anode during charging & discharging. In a study published in Nature Chemistry, engineers show that both the electrolyte & substrate matter. #energy www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lithium-metal batteries require the controlled growth of lithium for reliable operation, but it has been challenging to understand which factors impact and determine lithium nucleation and growth. Now...

www.nature.com

How Can Visual Artists Protect Their Work from AI Crawlers? It’s Complicated

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Aug 11

How can visual artists protect their work from non-consensual reuse by #genAI tools? It's complicated: today.ucsd.edu/story/how-ca...
#generativeAI #AIcrawlers #AI #visualarts #visualartists
@ucsandiego.bsky.social @uofchicago.bsky.social

One of the best ways to protect artists’ creative work is to prevent it from ever being seen by “AI crawlers” – the programs that harvest data on the Internet for training generative models. But most...

New AI Tool Learns to Read Medical Images With Far Less Data

7 11

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Aug 1

A team led by electrical and computer engineer Pengtao Xie created an AI tool that can learn to read medical scans with far less data than existing deep learning-based methods. It could aid diagnoses even when only a small number of patient scans are available. today.ucsd.edu/story/new-ai...

A new AI tool could make it much easier — and cheaper — for doctors and researchers to train medical imaging software, even when only a small number of patient scans are available. It could lead to fa...

Engineers Take a Closer Look at How a Plant Virus Primes the Immune System to Fight Cancer

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 25

New research led by UC San Diego chemical and nano engineer Nicole Steinmetz sheds light on why a certain plant virus that infects black-eyed peas shows remarkable promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—while other plant viruses do not. today.ucsd.edu/story/engine...

A virus that typically infects black-eyed peas is showing great promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—and researchers are uncovering why.

Wearable ultrasound technology - Nature Reviews Bioengineering

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 21

Ultrasound once meant brief snapshots inside the body. Now, wearable ultrasound tech is moving us toward continuous, hands-free monitoring to capture health changes in real time. Engineers led by Sheng Xu map out the advances in wearable ultrasound in this article: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

This Review discusses wearable ultrasound technology, covering device design, integration, clinical applications and translational potential. It highlights key barriers to wide deployment and explores...

www.nature.com

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 18

Researchers led by @ucsandiego.bsky.social electrical engineer Noah Rubin have developed a compact, flat camera that can capture the polarization of light across a wide field of view—thus addressing a long-standing challenge in optical design. opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...

Optica Publishing Group

opg.optica.org

CFS-NHERI – 10-Story Building Capstone Test Program

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 9

As waiting rooms fill up, doctors get increasingly burnt out, and surgeries take longer to schedule, humanoid surgical robots offer a solution. @ucsandiego.bsky.social Prof. Michael Yip argues why this human form factor and foundation model is best in Science Robotics: today.ucsd.edu/story/the-ro...

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 8

You can also check out the project's website here: cfs10.ucsd.edu

cfs10.ucsd.edu

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 8

What happens when you shake a 10-story cold-formed steel-framed building on the world's only outdoor earthquake simulator? That's the question engineers from @ucsandiego.bsky.social & @jhu.edu worked to answer this past month.
today.ucsd.edu/story/engine...

1 1

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 8

Why is #NIHfunding critical to early-stage clinical research? @ucsandiego.bsky.social #bioengineering professor Karen Christman explains.
Biomaterials from the @christmanlab.bsky.social are in clinical trials to heal heart conditions, from heart attacks to congenital defects.

1 2

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering @jacobsschool.bsky.social · Jul 2

New Nature study co-led by @ucsandiego.bsky.social links air pollution to cancer-related DNA mutations in lung tissue of never-smokers. Other exposures, such as traditional Chinese herbal medicines, were also linked to lung cancer cases of never-smokers. today.ucsd.edu/story/air-po...

Air Pollution May Contribute to Development of Lung Cancer in Never-smokers, New Study Finds

A new study reveals that air pollution, traditional herbal medicines and other environmental exposures are linked to genetic mutations that may contribute to the development of lung cancer in people w...