Browse the latest news and discoveries relating to animal research at UBC.
News
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November 27, 2018
Newly discovered wasp turns social spiders into zombies
It sounds like the plot of the world’s tiniest horror movie: deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a newly discovered species of wasp transforms a “social” spider into a zombie-like drone that abandons its colony to do the wasp’s bidding.
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November 7, 2018
Novel discovery could lead to new cancer, autoimmune disease therapy
International research project co-led by UBC Canada 150 Research Chair A new discovery by an international research team—co-led by UBC Canada 150 Research Chair Josef Penninger and Harvard Medical School neurobiologist Clifford Woolf—could have implications for therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
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October 29, 2018
Casino lights and sounds encourage risky decision-making
The blinking lights and exciting jingles in casinos may encourage risky decision-making and potentially promote problem gambling behaviour, suggests new research from the University of British Columbia.
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October 11, 2018
Previous motherhood could affect hormone therapy’s ability to prevent memory loss
Researchers have established that the foggy feeling and forgetfulness that many new mothers report during and after pregnancy—known as “mom brain”— is real. But new findings from the University of British Columbia suggest that the effect of motherhood on the brain appears to last much longer after childbirth than previously believed.
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October 3, 2018
Lowering levels of mutant protein that causes Huntington disease can restore cognitive function in mice
New research from the University of British Columbia suggests that reducing mutated Huntington disease protein in the brain can restore cognitive and psychiatric impairments in mice.
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September 11, 2018
Climate change fuels accumulation of pollutants in Chinook salmon, killer whales
University of British Columbia researchers studying the marine food web of the Northeast Pacific Ocean have found that the exposure and accumulation of chemical pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organic mercury, will be exacerbated under climate change.
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September 10, 2018
Global warming pushing alpine species higher and higher
For every one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature, mountaintop species shift upslope 100 metres, shrinking their inhabited area and resulting in dramatic population declines, new research by University of British Columbia zoologists has found.
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June 27, 2018
As penguins dive, their location data takes flight
Data sent from penguins to space and back to UBC could help researchers determine why the species’ breeding population fluctuates so dramatically.
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June 21, 2018
UBC researchers create matchmaking service to combat antibiotic resistant infections
UBC researchers have matched small proteins, called peptides, with antibiotics so they can work together to combat hard-to-treat infections that don’t respond well to drugs on their own. The study builds on previous research that showed that the peptides are key to making harmful bacteria more responsive to drugs.
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June 19, 2018
‘Smart stent‘ detects narrowing of arteries
For every three individuals who have had a stent implanted to keep clogged arteries open and prevent a heart attack, at least one will experience restenosis—the renewed narrowing of the artery due to plaque buildup or scarring—which can lead to additional complications.