In an advance that could lead to improved manufacturing, a study by UCLA researchers shows that adding nanoparticles to metals during the melting process allows for better control during melting. The melting and solidification of metals are important processes in manufacturing, used in welding and also 3D printing. For example, laser welding has been used to build cars and ships for decades.

Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center have implanted a spinal stimulator that is showing early promise in returning hand strength and movement to a California man who broke his neck in a dirt-biking accident five years ago. Brian Gomez, 28, became one of the world's first patients to undergo surgery for the experimental device in June 2016. UCLA scientists positioned the 32-electrode stimulator below the site of Gomez's spinal-co...

  A research team led by UCLA electrical engineers has developed an artificial composite material to control of higher-frequency electromagnetic waves, such as those in the terahertz and far-infrared frequencies.

UCLA researchers working with a team at Verily Life Sciences have designed a mobile microscope that can detect and monitor fluorescent biomarkers inside the skin with a high level of sensitivity, an important tool in tracking various biochemical reactions for medical diagnostics and therapy. This new system weighs less than a one-tenth of a pound, making it small and light enough for a person to wear around their bicep, among other parts of ...

By coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and then allowing them to self-assemble into the shapes of the air sacs found in human lungs, researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have succeeded in creating 3D lung "organoids." The laboratory-grown lung-like tissue can be used to study diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has traditionally been difficult to...

A team of UCLA researchers has found a way to speed and simplify the detection of proteins in blood and plasma opening up the potential for diagnosing the early presence of infectious diseases or cancer during a doctor's office visit. The test takes about 10 minutes as opposed to two to four hours for current state-of-the-art tests. The approach overcame several key challenges in detecting proteins that are biomarkers of disease.

A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment at UCLA to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. The technique uses sonic stimulation to excite the neurons in the thalamus, an egg-shaped structure that serves as the brain's central hub for processing information. "It's almost as if we were jump-starting the neurons back into function," said Martin Monti, the study's lead author and a UCLA associat...

UCLA researchers have designed a laboratory test that uses microchip technology to predict how potentially hazardous nanomaterials could be. According to UCLA professor Huan Meng, certain engineered nanomaterials, such as non-purified carbon nanotubes that are used to strengthen commercial products, could have the potential to injure the lungs if inhaled during the manufacturing process. The test he helped develop could be used to analyse th...

Researchers at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have discovered that a metabolic molecule called alpha-ketoglutarate helps pluripotent stem cells mature early in the process of becoming adult organs and tissues. The findings, published online in the journal Cell Metabolism, could be valuable for scientists working toward stem cell–based therapies for a wide range of diseases.

A method developed by UCLA scientists uses data about patients' genetic sequences to produce more reliable projections for survival time and how they might respond to possible treatments. The technique is an innovative way of using biomedical big data—which gleans patterns and trends from massive amounts of patient information—to achieve precision medicine—giving doctors the ability to better tailor their care for each individua...

Scientists at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA have developed a new technique for identifying cancer cells in blood samples faster and more accurately than the current standard methods. In one common approach to testing for cancer, doctors add biochemicals to blood samples. Those biochemicals attach biological "labels" to the cancer cells, and those labels enable instruments to detect and identify them.

  For decades, doctors and scientists have predicted that personalised medicine—tailoring drug doses and combinations to people's specific diseases and body chemistry—would be the future of health care. A team of UCLA bioengineers and surgeons has taken a major step toward that reality.

They are all shapes and sizes, with all numbers of legs. They can put out fires on ships, shimmy up construction sites to do dangerous inspections, safely traverse battlefields and enter power plants to plug radiation leaks. Oh, and they play soccer, too. One tiny one even break-dances. These are just some of the products of the endlessly creative mind of UCLA's Dennis Hong, director of the legendary RoMeLa (Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory), a...

Imagine a world with little or no concrete. Would that even be possible? After all, concrete is everywhere—on our roads, our driveways, in our homes, bridges and buildings. For the past 200 years, it's been the very foundation of much of our planet. But the production of cement, which when mixed with water forms the binding agent in concrete, is also one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, about 5% of the plane...

Expanding the use of recycled water would reduce water and energy use, cut greenhouse gas emissions and benefit public health in California—which is in the midst of a severe drought—and around the world. A new study by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, published online 17th March in the American Journal of Public Health, found that recycled water has great potential for more efficient use in urban settings and to im...

The overall five-year survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer is just 6%, and there is an urgent need for new treatment options. More than 80% of pancreatic cancer diagnoses occur too late for surgery, making chemotherapy the only possible treatment. Scientists from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a delivery system for one chemotherapy drug that greatly reduces the...

A UCLA Engineering research group has made public the computer code for an algorithm that helps computers process images at high speeds and “see” them in ways that human eyes cannot. The researchers say the code could eventually be used in face, fingerprint and iris recognition for high-tech security, as well as in self-driving cars’ navigation systems or for inspecting industrial products.

Researchers have created a super-strong yet light structural metal with extremely high specific strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ratio. Composed of magnesium infused with a dense and even dispersal of ceramic silicon carbide nanoparticles, the new metal could be used to make lighter aeroplanes, spacecraft and cars, helping to improve fuel efficiency, as well as in mobile electronics and biomedical devices.

  Researchers at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have developed a dramatically advanced tool for analysing how chemicals called nanocatalysts convert chemical reactions into electricity.

  A team of researchers led by UCLA electrical engineers has demonstrated a new way to harness light particles, or photons, that are connected to each other and act in unison no matter how far apart they are, a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement.