Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a unique peptide that induces cell differentiation by inhibiting cellular protein CHD4, a promising approach to target dedifferentiated cancer cells and for cell therapy.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an autonomous crop transportation robot to aid field workers during harvest.

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1) inhibitors and methods for their use in cancer therapy. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent, non-apoptotic form of regulated cell death that is characterized by the accumulation of oxidatively damaged phospholipids. Ferroptosis has been implicated in cell death and dysfunction in degenerative diseases. Triggering ferroptosis by inhibition of the GSH-GPX4 pathway has emerged as a promising strategy to trigger cell death in cancer. However, recent findings have uncovered protective mechanisms that promote resistance to ferroptosis inducing agents in cancer cells. For example, FSP1 mediates a GSH- independent ferroptosis suppression pathway and has emerged as a key ferroptosis resistance factor. Thus, a need exists for FSP1 inhibitors and their use in cancer therapy. Stage of Research The inventors have developed FSP1 inhibitors and methods of inhibiting FSP1 comprised of contacting FSP1 with an FSP1 inhibitor in an amount effective to inhibit FSP1. The inventors have also developed methods for treating cancer wherein a subject is treated with a therapeutically effective amount of an FSP1 inhibitor, sometimes in a combination therapy regime.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have identified a short peptide which rapidly promotes protein degradation in cancerous enzymes and induces cell differentiation to kill lymphomas.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a virally derived homolog to increase the inflammatory response desirable in cancer immunotherapy.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a viral peptide therapeutic that targets MYC-based cancerous tumors.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have emerged as an encouraging platform for many fields due to their compact size, phase stability, and can be mass produced in semiconductor foundries at low cost. As such, PIC enabled waveguide-to-free-space beam delivery has been demonstrated towards ion trap quantum computing, atomic clocks, optical tweezers, and more. Grating couplers are commonly used, as through careful design, they can generate diffraction-limited focused spots into free space from a waveguide input. However, they suffer from many drawbacks – they have a narrow optical bandwidth, limited efficiency, are sensitive to light polarization and the emission angle is sensitive to fabrication variation.Quantum systems require stable delivery of multiple wavelengths, often spanning the near ultraviolet (NUV), visible, and near infrared (NIR) spectrum, to multiple locations tens to hundreds of micrometers above the PIC. This requirement exacerbates the pitfalls of grating couplers; their single-wavelength operation necessitates multiple gratings per unit cell. With more gratings to fabricate, fabrication variance takes a greater toll on device performance. UC Berkeley researchers have devised a new approach and device to deliver light from in-plane waveguides to out-of-plane free space beams in a low-loss, broadband manner. In particular, this device is used for controlling qubits in a trapped ion quantum computer, but in general the system is suitable for other integrated beam delivery applications.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an automated harvesting system using predictive scheduling for crop-transport robots, reducing manual labor, and increasing harvesting efficiency.