phd biology ucla

• Doctoral Program

The doctoral program prepares students to excel in research, academia, industry, and governmental / non-governmental organizations. Students have access to seminars and courses on a wide range of topics in evolutionary biology, ecology, and animal behavior, as well as biomathematics, theoretical modeling, and statistics. Students enter the program and begin working with a provisional faculty advisor. After completing a common set of course requirements during their first year, doctoral students focus on their research in one of our specializations.

Incoming doctoral students receive five-year support packages that typically include a combination of support in the form of fellowships, graduate student researcher appointments, and teaching assistantships. Many of our continuing students are successful at earning competitive campus and extramural graduate fellowships. Please visit the Graduate Support page for a list of funding sources.

For questions about the doctoral program and application process, please contact the EEB Graduate Student Affairs Office via email at [email protected] .

Steps to Apply:

The application deadline for Fall 2024 admission is December 1 st, 2023 . All application materials, including letters of recommendations and transcripts are due by this date.

• First complete and submit the UCLA Online Graduate School Application by the December 1st deadline. You will be asked to create an account, and we strongly recommend writing down your password. Select the  Fall 2024 admission term, and Biology PhD. For the Academic Program (or Biology Academic Division) select the  PhD – Biology .
• You will need the following information to complete the online application:
• Brief description of your research interests (50 characters max, including spaces).
• Prospective Faculty Advisor(s) and brief rationale. Select up to two faculty in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (300 words max).
• How did you become interested in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology?
• What work or academic experiences prompted you to apply for a graduate degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology?
• In what area of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology do you plan to specialize?
• What are your career goals?

Our department in particular is looking for applicants with knowledge and creativity in  their research area of interest, strong communication skills, resiliency in the face of setbacks, capacity for planning, organization, and teamwork, and high standards of ethics and integrity. We encourage applicants to share examples that highlight strengths in these areas.

• Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?
• Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them? What is the evidence of your persistence, progress or success?
• How have your life experiences and educational background informed your understanding of the barriers facing groups that are underrepresented in higher education?
• How have you been actively engaged (e.g., through participation, employment, service, teaching or other activities) in programs or activities focused on increasing participation by groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education?
• How do you intend to engage in scholarly discourse, research, teaching, creative efforts, and/or community engagement during your graduate program that have the potential to advance diversity and equal opportunity in higher education?
• How do you see yourself contributing to diversity in your profession after you earn your advanced degree at UCLA?
• Statement of Purpose: This is a mandatory university-wide prompt for all graduate programs. Feel free to upload the statement used for the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Supplementary Essay. (1500 word limit)
• Names and email addresses of three recommenders. Specific instructions concerning letters of recommendation are described in the online application. Note that recommender should be given enough time to upload letters by the December 1 st deadline.
• Copy of unofficial transcripts for uploading.
• Awards and other Distinctions. Any academic awards, prizes, honors, fellowships or other distinctions that you have received.
• Pertinent work experience. Paid or volunteer positions, such as research internships, that you feel are relevant.
• Any publications, or manuscripts submitted for publication, on which you are an author.
• ONE official, sealed copy of your academic transcripts.  Electronic transcripts are preferred and you should instruct your institution’s registrar’s office to send them to the EEB Graduate Student Affairs Office  at  [email protected] .  If sending physical transcripts, please have the registrar’s office of your institution send transcripts here:

EEB Graduate Student Affairs Office Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 610 Charles E. Young Drive East University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 90095-7246

• International applicants should review the  UCLA Requirements for International Applicants .

Please note GRE scores are no longer considered during the application review process. You may see a place for them on the general application, but do not have an official score report sent to our department.

The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD Program is one of 18  Graduate Programs in the biosciences .

Interesting links

• #9365 (no title)
• 2020NEWgradInfo
• 2023 EEB Commencement – Tickets
• 2023-2024 Undergraduate RA Lab Availability
• Academic & Student Services-Who Do I Ask?
• Academic Advising
• Academic Timeline for Master’s Students
• Admissions Requirements
• Alternatives to Research Quarter
• ALUMNI & FRIENDS
• Alumni Networking
• ARCHIVED Ecology, Behavior and Evolution Major
• Bartholomew Fund
• Bernard O. Phinney
• Biology Major
• Biology Major ARCHIVED MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
• By-Laws Coordinator
• cal form test
• Call for Guest Lecturers
• CARE committee
• Charles Arthur Schroeder
• Commencement
• commencement22
• Conservation Biology Minor
• Contract Courses
• current graduate students
• current Graduate Students OLD
• Current Students
• Declaring Major/Minor
• Department Honors
• Department News
• Doctoral Degree Requirements
• Doctoral Timeline
• Dr. Eric Berry Edney
• Dr. George Bartholomew
• Ecology, Behavior and Evolution (EBE) major
• EEB Commencement 2023
• EEB Graduate Student Handbook
• EEB Seminar Committee
• EEB Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
• EEB Zoom Backgrounds
• Enrolling in a Research Course
• Epperson Fund
• Evolutionary Medicine Minor
• facTableTest
• facTableTestTwo
• Faculty Menu
• faculty performance evaluation
• Faculty Research
• Faculty Spotlight
• Field Biology Quarter
• Field Marine Biology Quarter
• Finance Unit-Fund manager and PI List
• Financial Unit-Who Do I ask?
• Finding a faculty mentor
• grad student 6coltest
• grad student directory form
• grad student form2
• grad student info form
• grad student info form3
• grad student test
• gradInfoVIEWpage
• gradstudent
• Graduate Student Support
• Graduate Timeline
• Health and Well Being
• In Memoriam
• indivfacTEST
• indivfaculty
• indivFaulty2
• Individual Seminar
• Intranet (Archive)
• Intranet (Financial Page)
• Intranet-Faculty Handbook
• Leadership and Committees
• Life After Degree
• Major / Minor Requirements
• Marine Biology ARCHIVED MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
• Marine Biology Major
• Marine Biology Quarter
• Master’s Degree Program
• Master’s Degree Requirements
• Master’s Timeline
• MS Biology studying the Ecology and Evolution of Medicine
• New Student Sessions
• On-Campus Resources
• Postdocs and Research Faculty
• Pre- Approved Petition Courses
• Pre-Counseling Checklist
• Previous Seminars
• Programs and Scholarships
• Prospective Students
• Quantitative Resources
• Registration and Enrollment
• Related Events
• Requirements
• Research and Opportunities
• Research Quarters
• Resources And Programs On Campus
• Resources for Research
• responsiveTableTestPage
• Sample Page
• searchFacTest
• shiny embed test
• shiny embed test 2
• Test iFrame
• testFacSearchV
• Undergraduate
• Undergraduate Advising
• Undergraduate Calendar
• Why UCLA EEB
• workshopKaltura
• Uncategorized
• February 2024
• October 2019
• On Campus Resources and Programs
• Master’s Degree Program
• Master’s Degree
• Graduate Students Directory
• Campus Resources for Graduate Students
• Update your Alumni Info
• Support EEB

General Catalog

Microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics ms, phd.

Recent Publications

MYC is a regulator of androgen receptor inhibition-induced metabolic requirements in prostate cancer

Published in the journal Cell Reports

(Preston D. Crowell, Jenna M. Giafaglione, Anthony E. Jones, …, Orian S. Shirihai, Ajit S. Divakaruni, Andrew S. Goldstein)

Composition of Essential Oils from Eight Tunisian  Eucalyptus  Species and Their Antifungal and Herbicidal Activities

Published in the journal  Plants

(Ayed A, Polito F, Mighri H, Souihi M, Caputo L, Hamrouni L, Amri I, Nazzaro F, De Feo V, Hirsch AM, Mabrouk Y)

Next Thursday Seminar

MBI Thursday Research Seminar | Billy Tsai, PhD | Hosted by Steven Clarke, PhD

MBI members Heather Christofk, Kathrin Plath and Aparna Bhaduri have received a $500,000 grant from the  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Measuring Metabolism Across Scales program  to study how metabolism influences fetal brain development and how the process gets dysregulated in diabetic pregnancy. Congratulations!

Our Partners:

Second Year

Fourth year, interesting links.

• #8754 (no title)
• ‘You belong’: How first-gen students have succeeded in STEM
• “Dialogues on Inclusive Excellence in the Biosciences”
• “Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science” wins 2021 Iris Book Award
• $1.5 million CIRM grant funds UCLA research to advance stem cell-based technologies for treating intellectual disability syndromes (UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)
• $6.2 million NIH grant to support UCLA study of how COVID-19 causes multiple organ failure
• 2018-19 Life Sciences Excellence Award Winners
• 2020 UCLA Life Sciences Excellence Awards
• 2021 Life Sciences Excellence Awards
• 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Awardees provide an inspiring glimpse into Life Sciences’ graduate student research
• 2022 UCLA Life Sciences’ Mautner Graduate Awardees
• 2022: Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in UCLA Life Sciences
• 2024 Life Sciences Excellence Awards – Call for Nominations
• A ‘lost world’ in the Yucatan Peninsula reveals possible impacts of climate change on coastal plains
• A decade after gene therapy, children born with deadly immune disorder remain healthy
• A digital nature tour of UCLA’s campus– highlighting our Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden
• A longer-lasting COVID vaccine? UCLA study points the way
• A True Bruin works to help fellow student-veterans in UCLA Life Sciences
• Affiliate Institutes & Centers
• American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) at UCLA receives nationwide chapter award for outreach and community service
• Anatomy of a Vaccine (UCLA Magazine article)
• Announcing the new UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies
• Available Academic Positions
• Basic tips for expanding your allyship
• Belonging at UCLA: U.S. Army infantryman to UCLA neuroscience graduate
• Big Data and Life Sciences
• Birds, climate change, and where we can make a difference- a conversation with Professor Morgan Tingley
• Black History in UCLA Life Sciences – Psychology’s first tenured Black professor recounts his early days at UCLA
• Celebrate Community: Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May 2022)
• COVID and the need to address long-term grief
• COVID-19 and potential shifts in gender roles
• COVID-19 pandemic science and public health, made better through community partnership: 2022 Mautner Public Lecture with Joe Derisi, Ph.D.
• COVID-19 Vaccination: It Matters in Saving Black Lives (Recorded Town Hall Event)
• Curriculum Options for Biological Sciences Majors
• Dean Tracy Johnson interviewed on Univision show about women in science
• Departments
• Distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology is honored with the UCLA Public Impact Research Award
• Diversity Committee
• Drug commonly used as antidepressant helps fight cancer in mice
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor named 2019 Gold Shield Faculty Prize winner
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate student wins 2022 UCLA Grad Slam Final
• Embed iList
• Embryo models are not embryos, say leaders at the new UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education
• Engaging in AAAS SEA Change: Q&A with Life Sciences Dean Tracy Johnson
• Facts, Myths, and Misinformation on COVID-19 – Protecting Black/Latinx Families – UCLA webinar January 13, 2022
• Faculty in UCLA Life Sciences listed among the world’s most influential researchers
• Faculty Resources
• Finding your Path in the Life Sciences • Fall 2022
• For UCLA-based startup, new muscular dystrophy treatment is a personal mission
• Frontpage (New)
• Gene therapy at UCLA gives man with sickle cell disease the chance for a better future
• Graduate Degrees
• Graduates & Post-Docs
• Homepage (New)
• Hope for patients with severe paralysis after spinal cord injury
• How exercise rejuvenates aging stem cells: a Q&A with Dr. Thomas Rando (Broad Stem Cell Research Center)
• How sourdough, seeds, shovels (and other basic survival needs) made a comeback in the pandemic
• In Memoriam: Kathryn Anderson, Pioneer of Developmental Biology and UCLA alum
• In memoriam: Allen Parducci, 97, influential cognitive psychologist and early pioneer of windsurfing
• In Memoriam: Distinguished Professor Bob Wayne, pioneer in evolutionary and conservation genetics
• In Memoriam: Seymour Feshbach, Professor Emeritus of Psychology
• Inaugural UCLA Jenessa Shapiro Memorial Award supports graduate student research on intraracial conversations
• Inclusion Research
• Inclusive Excellence
• Institute for Society and Genetics Professor Nanibaa’ Garrison
• Intricacies of L.A.’s urban ecosystem are the focus of a new UCLA podcast
• Life Sciences Core Curriculum
• Life Sciences Excellence Award Winners 2022
• Life Sciences Excellence Award Winners 2023
• Life Sciences professors named 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Life Sciences Undergraduates – Study Abroad
• Life Sciences undergraduates publish research on pandemic inequities in the virtual classroom
• Majors & Minors
• Majors & Minors (copy)
• Music’s Emotional Power Can Shape Memories—And Your Perception Of Time (Science Friday)
• New state grant funds UCLA research that will help guide interventions aimed at reducing COVID health risks for Black Californians
• Open Academic Positions
• Out of the Box
• Pangolin genome research aims to help protect pangolin species and reveals intriguing facts
• Planning Your Curriculum
• Professor Vickie Mays– stepping up to improve the health of underserved communities
• Q&A: Brandon Tsai, Triple Bruin and 2023 UC Grad Slam winner
• Research Programs
• Shrimp Parade: Why Walk on Land? UCLA Biologists Investigate (New York Times)
• Six UCLA Life Scientists on the 2020 list of the world’s most influential researchers
• Stellar Scientists & Mentor Professors
• Stem cell therapy promotes recovery from stroke and dementia in mice
• Stress eating? UCLA researcher provides insights and how you might train your brain to crave healthy foods.
• The Mystery of Monkeypox’s Global Spread (Wired)
• The U.S. is more racially diverse than ever. Will people of color unify politically?
• Tracy Johnson
• Two UCLA Life Sciences professors named inaugural HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholars
• UCLA awarded $10 million to improve liver transplantation
• UCLA Biologist named 2021 fellow of the California Academy of Sciences
• UCLA biologist receives Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s highest award
• UCLA collaborative study finds nearly half of US prisons likely drawing from water contaminated with toxic PFAS
• UCLA distinguished speaker series engages L.A. County Supervisor in conversations about protecting Black mothers before, during and after pregnancy
• UCLA Graduate Programs in Bioscience’s Mentor Training for Faculty
• UCLA leads research to study female health across the animal kingdom–providing insights for a myriad of female health conditions
• UCLA Life Sciences faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• UCLA Life Sciences Faculty Interviews on “The Science Show”
• UCLA Life Sciences New Student Welcome 2023
• UCLA Life Sciences professor named 2024 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
• UCLA Life Sciences professors among BIOS Top Women in Academic Entrepreneurship
• UCLA Life Sciences professors lend their perspectives to the public event series, 10 Questions: If not now, when?
• UCLA Life Sciences’ undergraduates and mentors– making a difference through the Bunche Fellows Program
• UCLA Life Scientists aim to reduce greenhouse gases and create better tasting cultured meat
• UCLA Life Scientists awarded grants from CNSI Noble Family Innovation Fund to advance sustainability through nanoscience research
• UCLA molecular, cell and developmental biology transfer student receives prestigious 2022 Goldwater Scholarship
• UCLA predictive model identifies most vulnerable communities for COVID-19 public health measures
• UCLA Psychologist weighs in on why most diets don’t work
• UCLA Psychology Distinguished Professor Emerita, Shelley Taylor, receives 2023 National Medal of Science
• UCLA receives $5 million to establish new center to maximize neuroscience potential for public good
• UCLA research highlights the importance of reducing maternal stress to improve child health
• UCLA research paves the way for scaling the production of cultured meat
• UCLA research shows what a sense of belonging can offer to Latinx and African American college students
• UCLA research team receives $1 million grant to study long COVID
• UCLA researchers discover an unexpected regulator of heart repair
• UCLA researchers identify T cell receptors that could lead to new immunotherapies against prostate cancer
• UCLA SACNAS receives national award for promoting Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
• UCLA Science and Food x LA Times Food Bowl event: “People, Food, and Climate: Thinking Holistically About What We Eat” 9/28/22 (Recording)
• UCLA scientists create mouse research-model for COVID-19 virus and find multiple organ failures
• UCLA scientists make strides toward an ‘off-the-shelf’ immune cell therapy for cancer
• UCLA study finds inbreeding effects that could drive local extinction of Southern California mountain lions
• UCLA study suggests acne bacteria thrive when skin oil turns infection-fighting cells into accomplices
• UCLA survey finds most teens reject glamorized lifestyles in entertainment media
• UCLA undergraduates awarded for their podcast: “Effects of COVID-19 and Social Stigma on Califorina’s undocumented Latinx communities”
• UCLA-Charles R. Drew University partnership receives $11M grant to address inequities in HIV care and prevention
• UCLA-led study assesses effects of climate change and habitat loss on East African bird populations
• UCLA-led study develops a wearable sensor that could guide precision drug dosing
• UCLA-led team maps blood stem cell development – paving the way to better treatments for blood cancer and sickle cell disease
• Undergraduate Student Groups
• Undergraduates
• Undergraduates launch new pre-health program for UCLA’s military-connected students
• View: Newsroom Cards
• Voting Information for Bruins
• Ways faculty can support DEI at UCLA
• When it comes to identifying new gene therapies, she’s in it for the long run (Broad Stem Cell Research Center story)
• Wildfires drive L.A.’s mountain lions to take deadly risks
• With $12 million in federal funding, UCLA to expand reach of its depression treatment
• Women’s History Month
• Featured News
• Life Science Scholars
• Uncategorized
• Undergraduate
• February 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• September 2023
• August 2023
• February 2023
• January 2023
• December 2022
• November 2022
• October 2022
• September 2022
• August 2022
• February 2022
• January 2022
• December 2021
• November 2021
• October 2021
• September 2021
• August 2021
• February 2021
• January 2021
• December 2020
• November 2020
• October 2020
• September 2020
• August 2020
• February 2020
• January 2020
• December 2019
• November 2019
• October 2019
• September 2019
• August 2019
• February 2019
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• October 2018
• September 2018
• August 2018
• February 2018
• January 2018
• December 2017
• November 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• August 2017
• February 2017
• January 2017
• December 2016
• November 2016
• October 2016
• September 2016
• August 2016
• February 2016
• January 2016
• December 2015
• November 2015
• October 2015
• September 2015
• August 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• December 2014
• November 2014
• October 2014
• September 2014
• August 2014
• February 2014
• January 2014
• December 2013
• November 2013
• October 2013
• September 2013
• August 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• October 2010

Chemistry Early Path

** Students should meet with departmental Student Affairs Officers, to help pick the right courses and curricular pathway.**

* Only required for select Life Science majors.

Biology Exploration Path

* Only required for select Life Sciences majors.

Physics Early Path

*Physics does not require Physics 5B as a pre-requisite for Physics 5C

Biology First Path

* Only required for select Life Science Majors.

The Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology is currently accepting applications for the Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology (MCDB).

This two-year course of study provides exceptional opportunities to gain experience in the conduct and critical analysis of independent research, under the guidance of experienced faculty mentors, culminates in completion of a thesis, and leads to a research-based Master of Science degree.

Laboratory research is the core component of the program, in which students engage in independent investigations with direct faculty mentoring. A wide range of faculty expertise and research interests is available to provide advanced training in the integrated fields of molecular, cell, and developmental biology. Students can develop a program of courses and research tailored to their interests within areas of faculty expertise.

Although intensive research-based training is the cornerstone of the program, students also take interdisciplinary coursework to complement their research and expand their scientific knowledge. Seminar courses and journal clubs focus on primary scientific literature and provide a forum to acquire skills in the interchange and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Lastly, students have the opportunity to acquire experience and engage in pedagogical strategies used in science education by serving as Teaching Assistants.

Graduates of the program go on to apply for PhD and other professional degree programs or pursue careers in research, medicine, and teaching.

For questions about the MS program and application process, please contact the MCDB Graduate Student Affairs Office via email at [email protected] .

All MCDB department faculty are affiliated with UCLA’s interdepartmental Graduate Programs in Bioscience. This consortium consists of 10 home areas, including Cell and Developmental Biology, Gene Regulation, Bioinformatics and Neuroscience. To learn more about this program and apply visit the Graduate Programs in Bioscience website .

MCDB faculty also train graduate students through the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program . The MSTP program is for those seeking a joint M.D/Ph.D. degree and the STAR program is for M.D.’s seeking a Ph.D. degree.

Interesting links

• 198 Sponsors Must
• 198 Students Must
• 198: How To Apply and Enroll
• 198A-D: Drafts, Reports, and Grading
• 199 Drafts, Reports, Grading
• 199 How to Apply and Enroll
• 199 project proposal
• 199 Project Proposals
• 199 Sponsors Must
• 199 Students Must
• 199A-D: Drafts, Reports, and Grading
• 483 BSRB Reservations
• 5000A TLSB reservations
• Active Emeriti
• Adjunct Faculty
• Alumni and Friends
• Basic Information
• Biomedical Research Minor
• Commencement
• Commencement 2020
• Conference map
• conference2023
• custom search view page test
• Departmental Honors
• Enrollment Request Form
• facResearchTest
• faculty handbook
• FacultyResearchTEST2
• facultyTESTblockMonday
• First Year Students
• freezer reservation
• Frequently Asked Questions
• full Custom Faculty View test
• Graduate Admissions
• HorizontalNewsTEST
• How to Apply and Enroll
• How to Get Research Experience
• indivfaculty
• Intranet Test
• Join MCDB Listserv
• Laboratory Safety
• Major Requirements
• MCDB 193/194A Enrollment
• MCDB 196A & 196B: Forms
• MCDB 196A and 196B
• MCDB 198/199 Forms
• MCDB 198A-D
• MCDB 198A-D Proposals
• MCDB 199A-D
• MCDB Retreat Program
• MCDB-Group-Administration
• New Student Sessions
• NewNewsTEST
• newSearchTEST
• newsortableViewTEST
• Nursing Mothers Room
• paginationViewPageTest
• Proposal Guidelines
• readMoreTEST
• redopagtwoPagetwo
• redotthreeTEST
• redotwopaginationtestPAGE
• Reservation Request
• Sample Page
• searchViewTEST
• talk poster form
• taxonomyTEST
• Testing mcdb-users
• Transfer Students
• Trouble Enrolling
• Undergraduate
• Undergraduate Research
• View: searchFacultyMondayView
• zoom backgrounds
• Uncategorized
• undergraduate
• September 2018
• Academic Senate Faculty
• Undergraduate home
• Course Websites
• Administration

• $1.5M National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award

Posted on October 3, 2023

Professor Danielle Schmitt receives prestigious $1.5 million New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. 

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, disbursed over a five-year period, is from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Program. Established in 2007, the program supports early-career investigators pursuing highly innovative research with the potential to have a broad impact on biomedical, behavioral, or social sciences. See a full list of the 2023 recipients here .

Schmitt received the award for her research titled “ Imaging Spatiotemporal Regulation of Acetyl-CoA .’’ Schmitt’s work aims to illuminate the dynamic, subcellular nature of acetyl-CoA by engineering an acetyl-CoA biosensor which can be used to probe acetyl-CoA with high spatiotemporal resolution and ultimately enhance our understanding of mechanisms and processes that underlie living organisms. 

Schmitt joined the UCLA faculty as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in July 2022.  An Ohio native, Schmitt obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. There she performed undergraduate research with Professor Bruce Storhoff as a Lewis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation scholar and interned at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate.  Schmitt received her Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry under the mentorship of Professor Songon An at the University of Maryland Baltimore County where she used fluorescence microscopy to study metabolons, or phase-separated complexes formed by metabolic enzymes. Her passion for using microscopy tools to interrogate cellular events led Schmitt to join Professor Jin Zhang’s lab in the Department of Pharmacology at University of California, San Diego, as a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow and an NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) Fellow. There, she focused on the novel design and application of genetically encoded fluorescent protein-based biosensors, focusing on AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK). 

The Schmitt group employs an interdisciplinary approach to study cellular metabolic regulation. They develop fluorescent protein-based genetically encoded reporters for metabolites, amino acids, and kinases involved in regulating metabolism. These microscopy-based tools help them investigate the spatial and temporal organization of metabolism in single cells. Their ultimate goal is to understand the regulation of metabolism in healthy cells and its disruption in disease.

In addition to the 58 New Innovator awards, the NIH issued eight Pioneer awards, six Transformative Research awards, and 13 Early Independence awards in 2023.

Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, [email protected] .

Could the ‘central dogma’ of biology be misleading bioengineers?

Dec 11, 2023

Wayne Lewis | UCLA Newsroom

December 11, 2023

Key takeaways

• Mesenchymal stem cells, found in bone marrow, secrete therapeutic proteins that could potentially help regenerate damaged tissue.
• A UCLA study examining these cells challenges the conventional understanding of which genetic instructions prompt the release of these therapeutic proteins.
• The findings could help advance both regenerative medicine research and the laboratory production of biologic treatments already in use.

Today, medicines based on antibodies — proteins that fight infection and disease — are prescribed for everything from cancer to COVID-19 to high cholesterol. The antibody drugs are supplied by genetically engineered cells that function as tiny protein-producing factories in the laboratory.

Meanwhile, researchers have been targeting cancer, injuries to internal organs and a host of other ailments with new strategies in which similarly engineered cells are implanted directly into patients.

These biotechnology applications rely on the principle that altering a cell’s DNA to produce more of the genetic instructions for making a given protein will cause the cell to release more of that protein.

A  new UCLA study  suggests that — at least in one type of stem cell — the principle doesn’t necessarily hold true.

The researchers examined mesenchymal stem cells, which reside in bone marrow and can self-renew or develop into bone, fat or muscle cells. Mesenchymal cells secrete a protein growth factor called VEGF-A, which plays a role in regenerating blood vessels and which scientists believe may have the potential to repair damage from heart attacks, kidney injuries, arterial disease in limbs and other conditions.

When the researchers compared the amount of VEGF-A that each mesenchymal cell released with the expression of genes in the same cell that code for VEGF-A, the results were surprising: Gene expression correlated only weakly with the actual secretion of the growth factor.

The scientists identified other genes better correlating with growth factor secretion, including one that codes for a protein found on the surface of some stem cells. Isolating stem cells with that protein on their surface, the team cultivated a population that secreted VEGF-A prolifically and kept doing so days later.

The findings, published today in Nature Nanotechnology, suggest that a fundamental assumption in biology and biotechnology may be up for reconsideration, said co-corresponding author Dino Di Carlo, the Armond and Elena Hairapetian Professor of Engineering and Medicine at the  UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.

“The central dogma has been, you have instructions in the DNA, they’re transcribed to RNA, and then the RNA is translated into protein,” said Di Carlo, who is also a member of UCLA’s  California NanoSystems Institute  and  Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research.  “Based on this, many scientists assumed that if you had more RNA, you’d have more protein, and then more protein released from the cell. We questioned that assumption.

“It seems we can’t assume that if a gene is expressed at higher levels, there will be higher secretion of the corresponding protein. We found a clear example where that doesn’t happen, and it opens up a lot of new questions.”

The results could help make the manufacturing of antibody-based treatments more efficient and define new cellular treatments that would be more effective. Knowing the right genetic switches to flip could enable the engineering or selection of extraordinarily productive cells for making or delivering therapies.

The UCLA study was conducted using standard lab equipment augmented with a technology invented by Di Carlo and his colleagues:  nanovials, microscopic bowl-shaped hydrogel containers , each of which captures a single cell and its secretions. Leveraging a new nanovial-enabled analytic method, the scientists were able to connect the amount of VEGF-A released by each one of 10,000 mesenchymal stem cells to an atlas mapping tens of thousands of genes expressed by that same cell.

Nanovials, a technology created by UCLA’s Dino Di Carlo and his colleagues, allowed researchers to capture single mesenchymal cells and their secretions. Withouth these vials, which are smaller than the width of a human hair, “we couldn’t have arrived at the unexpected results we found in this study,” said UCLA’s Kathrin Plath.

“The ability to link protein secretion to gene expression on the single-cell level holds great promise for the fields of life science research and therapeutic development,” said Kathrin Plath, a UCLA professor of biological chemistry, a member of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and a co-corresponding author of the study. “Without it, we couldn’t have arrived at the unexpected results we found in this study. Now we have an exciting opportunity to learn new things about the mechanisms underpinning the basic processes of life and use what we learn to advance human health.”

While activation of the genetic instructions for VEGF-A displayed little correlation with release of the protein, the researchers identified a cluster of 153 genes with strong links to VEGF-A secretion. Many of them are known for their function in blood vessel development and wound healing; for others, their function is currently unknown.

One of the top matches encodes a cell-surface protein, IL13RA2, whose purpose is poorly understood. Its exterior location made it simpler for the scientists to use it as a marker and separate those cells from the others. Cells with IL13RA2 showed 30% more VEGF-A secretion than cells that lacked the marker.

In a similar experiment, the researchers kept the separated cells in culture for six days. At the end of that time, cells with the marker secreted 60% more VEGF-A compared to cells without it.

Although therapies based on mesenchymal stem cells have shown promise in laboratory studies, clinical trials with human participants have shown many of these new options to be safe but not effective. The ability to sort for high VEGF-A secreters using IL13RA2 may help turn that tide.

“Identifying a subpopulation that produces more, and markers associated with that population, means you can separate them out very easily,” Di Carlo said. “A very pure population of cells that’s going to produce high levels of your therapeutic protein should make a better therapy.”

Nanovials are available commercially from Partillion Bioscience, a company co-founded by Di Carlo that started up at the CNSI’s on-campus incubator,  Magnify.

The first author of the study is Shreya Udani, who earned a doctorate from UCLA in 2023. Other co-authors, all affiliated with UCLA, are staff scientist Justin Langerman; Doyeon Koo, who earned a doctorate in 2023; graduate students Sevana Baghdasarian and Citradewi Soemardy; undergraduate Brian Cheng; Simran Kang, who earned a bachelor’s degree in 2023; and Joseph de Rutte, who earned a doctorate in 2020 and is a co-founder and CEO of Partillion.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and a Stem Cell Nanomedicine Planning Award funded jointly by the CNSI and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center.

DISCOVER THE INNOVATIVE WORK WE ARE DOING ON:

• Air, Food & Water
• Art & Culture
• Cities & Towns
• Climate Change
• Energy & Technology
• Environmental Justice
• Law & Policy
• Nature & Conservation
• Sustainable Business

Ary Amaya is 27 acres into an Indigenous-led reforestation of L.A. She’s far from done

cities & towns, environmental justice, nature & conservation

Ary Amaya barely squints as she stands awash in the midmorning glare, which reflects off the dew clinging to the tall grasses that carpet the ground. Anchoring herself on a dirt path that crests a large hill, she scans the descending slope covered in walnut, toyon, oak and elderberry trees.

The double Bruin, now in the final year of her master’s program in ecology and evolutional biology, knows the land well. She explains how the trees, some of which she and her research team have planted, make up a “food forest” — a collection of plants and trees she says are culturally significant to the Indigenous peoples who are the stewards and keepers of the land. 

The hill is part of a 12-acre open space in northeast Los Angeles, acquired in 2022 for the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation of Southern California. It was named the Chief Ya’anna Regenerative Learning Village in honor of Chief Ya’anna Vera Rocha, the tribe’s late chief. 

Amaya says the acquisition marked the largest land rematriation to date by Indigenous peoples in Los Angeles. 

At the center of the rematriation and reforestation work is the Anawakalmekak International University Preparatory of North America, a community-based charter school in the El Sereno neighborhood of East Los Angeles. The K–12 campus, currently the only Indigenous school in the city, serves Indigenous peoples from across the United States, Canada, and Central and South America.

Amaya, an educator at the school since February 2021, has helped develop scientific curricula centered on Indigenous practices, language and knowledge. Her understanding of these “Indigenous knowledge systems” was engrained in her long before her graduate program and employment at the school.

She is a descendent of traditional farmers and medicinal knowledge keepers from the pueblos of Amatlan de Jora, Ixtlan del Rio and Huajicori, in the southwest regions of Nayarit, Mexico. Amaya was born in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit, before moving to East Los Angeles with her mother and sister. 

Her role at Anawakalmekak, where she started as community organizer before evolving into a hybrid teacher, has opened up a channel between the school’s Indigenous-led reforestation and UCLA. 

With the support of her graduate advisor, UCLA ecologist and environmental biologist  Elsa Ordway,  Amaya has brought in Indigenous migrant youth to assist in her graduate work — specifically the reforestation of the village and 15 acres at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, an open space in Los Angeles’ Montecito Hills neighborhood. The two sites bring the scope of Amaya’s current work to 27 acres and counting. 

Five of these youths, all high school students at Anawakalmekak, make up Amaya’s “Ketsal Youth Research Scientists.” Every week, they engage in ground observations at the village or the park, monitoring newly planted trees and measuring the canopy of mature trees. The changes in canopy coverage, which can be observed using airborne and satellite imagery, can signify environmental impacts that cause changes in the ecology over time, Amaya says. 

These ground observations differ from what Amaya says are more Western ecological study practices, such as the use of data from satellite and aerial footage to tell the land’s story. The study of this footage is referred to as remote sensing and is something that Amaya has her youth researchers utilize to compare with what they observe on the ground. 

“These students are helping us think about how we as Indigenous people not only reforest and reenvision what ecological restoration looks like in the city, but also how that’s rooted in Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination — and how can we begin to quantify that in measures of what academia deems appropriate,” Amaya says. 

“We have our own ways of understanding the health of the ecosystem and its progression, so I’m really trying to integrate both of those worlds.”

The work has strong ties to what Amaya has been involved with in Ordway’s  Forest Ecosystems & Global Change Lab  at UCLA, which conducts international research and fieldwork to study how ecosystems are responding to climate change and its key drivers, like human deforestation, and associated carbon emissions. Amaya says that understanding these changes on a large scale is key to sustaining the forests and agriculture of Indigenous peoples.

“I was looking for an advisor who would take me on, not only as myself, but as someone who comes with a lot of community,” Amaya says of Ordway, who is an assistant professor at the  UCLA College.  “I made a commitment to the students who I am a teacher for. Engaging community means sustaining relationships and continuing to uplift them in all of the work that you do. To me, that meant developing a research project that included my students and the relationships I developed as a result of my work at Anawakalmekak.”

Those forged relationships include Gabrielle Crowe and Minnie Ferguson, both of whom are pivotal in the reforestation efforts. 

Crowe, granddaughter of Chief Ya’anna Vera Rocha, is the co-chair and secretary of environmental sciences for the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation of Southern California. Ferguson is the co-founder and director of education at Anawakalmekak. She is also an advisor for the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation of Southern California Council.  

“This is really the vision that our directors and Gabrielle’s grandmother had for the school,” Amaya says. “Gabrielle and so many others are helping bring that vision to life.” 

“This was a really important opportunity to connect, engage and build relationships that I think honor the commitment that UCLA is making in its  Strategic Plan, ” says Ordway, who is also co-director of the  Congo Basin Institute  at UCLA. In October, the university outlined a plan to broaden its commitment to inclusive excellence, starting with deepening UCLA’s engagement in local communities and around the globe.

“Ary came into the graduate program with strong expectations of what she wanted. Part of that was gaining more research experience, but a big part of it was doing research that would lift up Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous science and Indigenous voices — and doing work that’s really important to both her Indigenous community in Mexico and here in L.A.” 

MEET THE AUTHOR

Madeline Adamo

RELATED ARTICLES

eDNA reveals unique fish communities in Southern California seagrass meadows

Sea urchins help tropical coral reefs recover, study finds

Alumni Spotlight — From UCLA to NASA, Danielle Sonobe ’23

• Recommendations
• Notifications
• My Favorites

Favorites, recommendations, and notifications are only available for UCLA Graduate Students at this time.

Access features exclusively for UCLA students and staff.

As a student, you can:

• Add funding awards to your favorites list
• Get notified of upcoming deadlines and events
• Receive personalized recommendations for funding awards

 We're Sorry

You've signed in with a UCLA undergraduate student account.

UCLA Graduate Programs

Graduate Program: Molecular Biology

UCLA's Graduate Program in Molecular Biology offers the following degree(s):

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Master of Science (M.S.)

With questions not answered here or on the program’s site (above), please contact the program directly.

Molecular Biology Graduate Program at UCLA 172 Boyer Hall 611 Charles E. Young Drive East Box 951570 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1570

Visit the Molecular Biology’s faculty roster

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Visit the registrar's site for the Molecular Biology’s course descriptions

• Admission Requirements
• Program Statistics

(310) 794-4256

[email protected]

MAJOR CODE: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

• Undergraduate Students
• Masters Students
• PhD/Doctoral Students
• Postdoctoral Scholars
• Faculty & Staff
• Families & Supporters
• Prospective Students
• Explore Your Interests / Self-Assessment
• Build your Network / LinkedIn
• Search for a Job / Internship
• Create a Resume / Cover Letter
• Prepare for an Interview
• Negotiate an Offer
• Prepare for Graduate School
• Find Funding Opportunities
• Prepare for the Academic Job Market
• Search for a Job or Internship
• Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations
• Arts & Entertainment
• Consulting & Financial Services
• Engineering & Technology
• Government, Law & Policy
• Hospitality
• Management & Human Resources
• Non-Profit, Social Justice & Education
• Retail & Consumer Services
• BIPOC Students & Scholars
• Current & Former Foster Youth
• Disabled Students & Scholars
• First-Generation Students & Scholars
• Formerly Incarcerated Students & Scholars
• International Students & Scholars
• LGBTQ+ Students & Scholars
• Students & Scholars with Dependents
• Transfer Students
• Undocumented Students & Scholars
• Women-Identifying Students & Scholars

Find Your Future With Us - Plant Protection and Quarantine Career Fair!

• Share This: Share Find Your Future With Us – Plant Protection and Quarantine Career Fair! on Facebook Share Find Your Future With Us – Plant Protection and Quarantine Career Fair! on LinkedIn Share Find Your Future With Us – Plant Protection and Quarantine Career Fair! on X

Find Your Future With Us! Drop in to learn about “Entry-Level” USDA – APHIS – Plant Protection Quarantine Job openings which are open the week of this event!

We will highlight some information about these positions, their locations, and the best way to apply and be considered!

Please note, this is intended for students and graduates who have a background, interest and degree in Biology, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and related sciences. Due to HR Requirements, applicants in non-science backgrounds will not be considered for the positions.

One more step:

Spread the word by sharing this event with your social networks, save it to your calendar, add to calendar.