Young Faculty Selected for Prizes

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has selected two UCSD scientists to receive fellowships for showing “the most outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge.”

The awards went to computer scientist Alin Deutsch and neuroscientist Lisa Boulanger. Deutsch’s research focuses on developing infrastructure for publishing and consuming Internet data, while Boulanger studies interactions between the body’s immune and nervous systems.

Over 500 people are nominated to receive the prize every year, and the fellowships go to academics during their first faculty appointments to help them set up laboratories and establish independent research projects.

Cancer Linked to Chronic Infections

A UCSD cancer expert confirmed last week the long-held belief that chronic infections are related to the development of cancer and has suggested that the connection is a result of specific genes.

Michael Karin, a professor of pharmacology, presented data that reveals the molecular nature of the relationship between infections and malignant cancers.

Karin has proposed that a particular gene is centrally involved in the link. This gene is activated in response to infection and inflammation, switching on a series of other genes that can cause cancer cells to grow and die.

Engines Spell Dinner for Whales

A team of UCSD-led researchers has found that sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska zero in on the sound of boat engines in order to locate fishing lines strung with sablefish, their main food source and a growing presence on American dinner tables.The endangered whales hone in on engine noises as fishermen turn them on and off while hauling in their catches, according to UCSD associate research professor Aaron Thode.

Sound receivers attached to the fishing lines recorded the clicks of communicating whales. Using the data, Thode’s team found that whales dive shallower than normal when they are near boats in the process of retrieving catches of the bottom-dwelling sablefish.