UCLA researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed a simple solution-based method for fabricating highly conductive transparent silver nanowire (AgNW) films with excellent adhesive capabilities and noteworthy electrical, mechanical, and optical performance.

UCLA researchers from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics have developed a viral expression vector that combines two reagents effective against HIV-1 infection.

UCLA researchers in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering have developed a novel method for automated image analysis of digital pathology slides.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as antibodies that block negative regulators of T-cell activation (such as CTLA4 and PD-1/PD-L1), have transformed cancer treatment. However, even in metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), malignancies that are highly responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), response rates rarely exceed 40%. Not only that, many common malignances, such as prostate cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, are ICI refractory but causes of treatment failure are largely unknown. It is known though that oxaliplatin triggers a form of cell death that is thought to be immunogenic, whereas the chemical analogue cisplatin does not trigger the same form of immunogenic cell death.   Recent clinical trials have shown that immune checkpoint inhibitors responsiveness is significantly augmented by combining PD-1 signaling inhibitors with platinoid chemotherapeutics. Such results have led to approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors + platinoid combination therapy in NSCLC but the basis for this synergism has not been determined.

Modern metabolomics, proteomics and natural product datasets have now reached into the millions of tandem mass (MS/MS) spectra. The rapidly growing size of these datasets precludes laborious manual data interpretation of all of the data. While MS/MS spectral library search approaches match spectra in an automated fashion, the limited size of available spectral libraries limits identification rates of datasets to single digit percentages. In addition, the sharing of experimental MS/MS data between researchers is not that common. What is needed is a way to organize both identified and unidentified spectra into structurally related molecular families that is searchable.

Researchers in the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have developed anti-fouling and self-cleaning membranes for use in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, with particular applications for anaerobic membrane bioreactors.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Bioengineering and Department of Integrated Biology & Physiology have developed a novel array for spinal cord epidural stimulation.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering have developed a new method of diamond deposition in integrated circuit vias for thermal dissipation.