Second-hand smoke has long been known to be harmful, but the mechanism by which it inflicted its damage wasn’t clearly understood. Recent research here has gone a long way toward answering that question.

Understanding and controlling single-electron spins is viewed as the future of information and communication technologies. UCSB’s spintronics center is figuring out how to work with this phenomenon at room temperature, making such devices practical for the real world.

Picking the right strain of a pathogen against which to develop a seasonal vaccine has always been an educated guess, and not always successful. Now UCSB researchers have found the key to creating vaccines effective against multiple strains.

50 years ago, autism was little understood, and its casualties were relegated to institutions. Today, UCSB is leading the way both in understanding the mechanisms of the disease and in developing effective treatments for it.

Bioengineering research teams at UCSB are developing some of the world’s most advanced and sophisticated techniques and devices for the detection and diagnosis of pathogens and harmful substances.