Five UC faculty, alum win Nobel Prizes across three days
In the span of three days, five faculty members of the University of California (UC) and an alum won a Nobel Prize. According to a UC press release, it’s the first time in Nobel Foundation history that four faculty members from the same institution have won the award in a single year.
UC San Diego and UC Los Angeles alum Frederick J. Ramsdell, alongside other collaborators from Seattle and Japan, won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Oct. 6. Ramsdell and his colleagues researched regulatory T cells that prevent the immune system from harming body tissue. Within the press release, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said their research is being used to better understand autoimmune diseases and develop treatments for several conditions.
The following day, UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus John Clarke, UC Santa Barbara Professor Emeritus John Martinis and UCSB professor Michel Devoret won the prize in physics for research that is helping develop quantum computers. On Oct. 8, UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi, along with scientists in Japan and Australia, won the chemistry prize for creating a molecular architecture that can clean pollutants in the atmosphere and gather drinking water from desert air.
UC faculty have won 75 Nobel Prizes overall, according to the press release. The release also highlighted that this research was made possible with federal funding, amidst attempts by the federal government to revoke research grants from the UC.
“Throughout 2025, the federal government has canceled or delayed thousands of research grants to hundreds of U.S. universities,” the press release read. “While funding for many of UC’s projects has been restored, the interruptions and uncertainty have plagued research that is poised to deliver vital new knowledge, including studies of aging, addiction, obesity, maternal and fetal health and Alzheimer’s disease.”
FDA approves clinical trial for UCLA heart regeneration drug
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration approved Phase 1 clinical trials for a new tissue repair drug called AD-NP1. According to a press release from the UC, federal and state grants funded the development process entirely.
In 2021, UCLA cardiovascular scientist Arjun Deb discovered that heart tissue from mice and humans taken after a heart attack had increased levels of the protein ENPP1. Deb’s group went on to develop AD-NP1, a monoclonal antibody that stops ENPP1 from functioning and helps repair tissue from the heart and other organs.
According to the press release, this research is a “rare instance” of a drug being entirely developed in the same university laboratory, as most drugs are developed with the help of private companies. Deb chose this approach because it lowers costs, potentially shortens development time and allows for “intellectual freedom.”
“I have not taken a cent from any private donor or company to develop this drug. I hope this will form a model for future drug development at UCLA,” Deb said in the press release.
UCSD introduces artificial intelligence major
Starting this academic year, UCSD first-year students can pursue a Bachelor of Science in artificial intelligence (AI). Housed within the computer science and engineering department, the major is designed to teach students how to build AI systems and evaluate their impact.
The major will consist of an introductory course, mathematical and programming fundamentals and elective courses. According to The Guardian, students are also mandated to take an ethics course.
“For instance, when students study large language models, they might also examine questions of copyright and training data; when they explore recommendation systems, they may consider issues of algorithmic bias and its real-world impact,” UCSD professor Trevor Bonjour, who will teach courses in the major, told The Guardian. “Students will learn not only how to build AI systems, but also how to evaluate their consequences carefully: who benefits, who might be harmed and how to design responsibly.”
Although there are other UCs with AI concentrations and graduate programs, UCSD is the first to have an undergraduate major.
