Community gardens are communal spaces where gardeners cultivate flowers, fruits, medicinal plants, and vegetables. They vary in size, location and types of community tenure. The central motivation of many gardeners is often food production, but community gardens contribute to other diverse goals …
Indigenous and Traditional Healing
UCSC is located on the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore …
Cancer & NCD Genomics
Genomic analysis of genes, genomes and genetic variation is transforming human health. Cancer is a leading cause of death world wide, with more than 10 million deaths per year. Our faculty use genomics to uncover the genetic causes and blueprints of cancer, as well as new diagnostics and innovative …
Drug Development
Biomedical innovation over the last half century has improved health and extended lifespan globally. The molecular understanding of disease, along with sophisticated automation and screening technologies, have ushered in a new era of drug discovery. However, many infectious diseases, including ones …
Epigenetics
Epigenetics is a fast-growing field in biology that originally aimed to understand the phenotypic expression of the genotype. Today, epigenetics covers from the study of mechanisms of gene expression regulation during the development of complex organisms, to the study of phenotypic alterations …
Toxicology
Human activities over the past several centuries have not only profoundly modified the physical environment that we live in, but also the chemical environment, such that many chemical toxins are now ubiquitous throughout the Earth’s biosphere. Toxicology is the study of how exposure to …