Research Opportunities at ucla

Strategic Collection Plan: Living Collections Inventory

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UCLA PI Name: Anthony Baniaga
Division/Department: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology/UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden
Lab website (if applicable): https://www.botgard.ucla.edu/
Expected Weekly Time Commitment: 5 hours

The UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden needs 2-3 students for Fall 2025 to aid in the assessment of the living collections at the Garden. Students are responsible for locating plants in the garden and recording information about them into a database. A basic understanding of plant taxonomy is important as is keeping to a disciplined schedule. Students should be able to work independently or on a small team outside in dense vegetation for 5 hours per week. Additionally, a small independent project on an aspect of the garden and the living collections is required. Open to 1 unit of SRP credit.

Interested students should send a resume or CV and a brief description of their interest and relevant skills to Josh Brindley (joshbrindley@ucla.edu). We are hoping to field high quality candidates and the positions start Fall 2025 but interviews start mid August.

Research Opportunities at ucla

Research Position with Dr. Bruno Peault’s Lab

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Dr. Bruno Peault is looking for an undergraduate student to join their research team.

UCLA PI Name: Bruno Peault, PhD

Our laboratory has identified organ resident mesenchymal stem cells, which can differentiate into bone, cartilage, adipose tissue, smooth and skeletal muscle, and developed several projects to uncover the role of those stem cells in 1- tissue turnover and regeneration, and 2- pathologic development: fibrosis (joint, kidney, skeletal muscle) and atherogenesis (atheroma plaque formation in blood vessels).

We are now recruiting undergraduate students to work on the following themes:

– Gene therapy of OA (osteo-arthritis). In OA, irreversible degradation of joint cartilage is accompanied by inflammation and fibrosis, causing pain and severely affecting motion. The project aims to control joint pain, inflammation, and fibrosis by transducing siRNAs (small interfering RNAs) into relevant affected cell types.

– Stem cell dysfunction in lipedema. Lipedema is the dramatic and uncontrolled accumulation, in affected females (around 1/10), of subcutaneous abnormal adipose tissue in lower limbs, and eventually in the upper part of the body (arms, belly). Long misdiagnosed as obesity, lipedema has specific features: pain, fibrosis. The etiology of lipedema is unknown and we have hypothesized that qualitative and/or quantitative defects in mesenchymal stem cells are causing this severe, invalidating disease. The projects consists in the localization and quantification of mesenchymal stem cells in lipedema tissues, followed by their purification, culture, and functional assessment.

Candidates should commit to work at least 20 hours/week at the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, UCLA.

Please send resume and cover letter to Bruno Peault at bpeault@mednet.ucla.edu.

Research Opportunities at ucla

Universities and the New Nationalism

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Dr. Susanne Lohmann (department of Social Science/Political Science) is currently looking for a Research Assistant for their project titled “Universities and the New Nationalism”.  The RA work consists of compiling data sets and visualizing complex data patterns according to the principles of Edward Tufte (go to his website or look up his data visualization books on Amazon).

You can do the RA work off campus (remotely). Every now and then you and Dr. Lohmann will meet in person on campus.

Time Commitment: 5 hours per week, year-round, negotiable duration

Preapproved for credit: PS 99, PS 199, PS 89, PS 189, SRP 99, and SRP 199 credit. In the last three years, three undergraduate students under Dr. Susanne Lohmann have been recipients of the UCLA/Keck Humanistic Inquiry Research Award. You might also take Dr. Lohmann’s game-play-and-data-analysis General Education course Ethics and Governance (PS 60), which comes attached to an Honors Section (PS 89).

Documents to submit: Email Dr. Lohmann at lohmann@ucla.edu: Tell Dr. Lohmann about yourself and your academic and career goals. Why do you want to do research with Dr. Lohmann?

Send materials to: lohmann@ucla.edu

Relevant website: https://polisci.ucla.edu/person/susanne-lohmann/

Job Description:

My goal is to relate the rise of universities approx. 1200 CE to the present day with the process of modernization (“Rise of the West” etc) and levels of development by country and world region. Among other things, I will explore whether colonial heritage matters through the mechanism of university heritage, as in, colonized countries picked up a university heritage from their colonizers, hence former colonies are in receipt of different university heritages depending on (1) the identity of the colonizer (Spanish, English, French, and so forth) and (2) the specific time period in which they were colonized. I will also correlate scientific activity, higher education enrollment, and number of world-class universities with GDP per capita by country and world regions 2003-present.

Research Opportunities at ucla

Correlation of Patient Imaging with Pathology: Correlating Radiological and Pathological Features

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The Department of Radiological Sciences is seeking highly dedicated undergraduate students to assist with ongoing research projects involving the correlation between radiological (patient imaging) and pathological features, to help improve image-based detection, diagnosis, and treatment of different abdominal cancers. Responsibilities include:

– Data Entry/ Data Validation: includes medical chart review, data extraction, and image analysis for departmental research projects.
– Administrative tasks such as filing and making copies as instructed by study coordinators.
– Other Duties: Produce reports and contribute to Department surveys. Assemble and organize accurate information to meet deadlines for the School of Medicine. Participate in teams, committees, events and other group activities. Perform special projects and other duties as assigned.

Time Commitment: 5-20 hours per week, Year-round (1 year with the possibility of extension)

Preapproved for: SRP-99 credit

Documents to submit: Resume & transcript. Send as PDF.

Send materials to: nbarroso@mednet.ucla.edu

Qualifications: Students with an interest in gaining research or clinical experience are preferred. Must be detail-oriented, organized, work well with others, and be unafraid to ask questions. Life science majors or students on pre-med, pre-health tracks are preferred, but anyone interested in the opportunities is encouraged to apply.

If interested, please e-mail Alondra Prado at alondraprado@mednet.ucla.edu with your resume/CV.