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The dim glow of the hospital room cast flickering shadows as Soheil Ghiasi, Ph.D., gripped his wife’s hand. The rhythmic beeping of the fetal monitor filled the air, punctuated by the quiet murmur of nurses and the occasional contraction-induced groan. He had spent his career solving complex engineering problems, but none of that prepared him for this moment—the birth of his first child.

A stroke can change a person’s life in an instant. 

The results can mean death or surviving with physical limitations that can require months or even years of rehabilitation, which can be time-consuming, expensive and emotionally draining for both patients and their families. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionize healthcare, assisting doctors in diagnosing diseases, analyzing test results and predicting health risks. However, most AI systems focus on just one type of data at a time, limiting their ability to provide a comprehensive medical assessment. Unlike AI, doctors consider multiple factors—symptoms, medical history, lab results, and imaging scans—when making a diagnosis, leading to more accurate and informed decisions. 

For decades, neuroscience has overlooked a fundamental aspect of human biology: the female brain. 

The intricate relationships between brain function and hormonal shifts—throughout menstrual cycles, pregnancy, perimenopause, and beyond—have largely remained uncharted. 

For example, how is it that nearly 70 percent of Alzheimer’s patients are women, yet less than 0.5 percent of neuroimaging studies in the past 30 years have considered female-specific biological factors? 

A child’s sledding accident. A bad football tackle. A wartime explosion near a service member. These are just a few of the ways traumatic brain injuries can occur, upending a person’s life in an instant. 

Dementia affects nearly 11 million Americans, with that number expected to double by 2050. Families and caregivers are faced with the difficult challenge of managing agitation and emotional distress in individuals with dementia, often leading to increased falls, hospitalizations and caregiver burnout.

But what if cutting-edge technology could help ease this burden?

The UC Noyce Initiative is pleased to announce the appointment of Bryan Kerner as its executive director, effective May 1. Kerner is the first person to hold this position since the Initiative's public launch on December 12, 2023.

UC Noyce Initiative-funded researcher Gene Tsudik was recently (April 11) awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. He joins 186 other American and Canadian scientists and scholars receiving this highly competitive honor this year.

Tsudik is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at UC Irvine. His research interests include many topics in computer security, privacy and applied cryptography. Some of his recent work is focused on security (especially, malware-resistance) for the burgeoning global ecosystem of so-called Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

UC Noyce Initiative researcher Chen-Nee Chuah was recently (April 18) selected to be a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society. The prestigious honor is a lifetime achievement and is reserved for researchers who have made significant advancements to science or its applications.

The UC Noyce Initiative is proud to announce that new funding opportunities are now available to advance collaborative research in quantum technology among five campuses within the University of California system.

The grants, which will range from up to $600,000 to $800,000, will support partnerships between the five UC campuses that are part of The UC Noyce Initiative: Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, San Francisco, Santa Barbara. Applications are due April 24, 2024.