June 26, 2025
India is one of the most diverse countries in the world. A new analysis of Indian genomes shows an ancient admixture of genes from Neanderthals and Denisovans, and more recent mingling of genes from Iranian farmers, Central Asian steppe pastoralists and hunter-gatherers from South Asia. Photo courtesy of unsplash With around 5,000 different ethno-linguistic and…
June 25, 2025
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), in partnership with the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), honored Jay Keasling, senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), with the 2025 OTC/NAI Innovator of the Year Award. The honor is awarded each year…
June 25, 2025
Ever wonder how your body digests food, or how some industrial processes become “greener”? The answer often lies with enzymes – nature’s microscopic workhorses that speed up vital chemical reactions. A recent study in Science, uses a high-throughput enzymology platform to study nearly 200 different versions of an enzyme called adenylate kinase found in living things…
May 20, 2025
Over 90 outstanding researchers from across the world have this year been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. Among the new fellows is QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate Eva Nogales. This year’s cohort include trailblazers across a wide range of fields, from artificial intelligence and electron microscopy to global…
May 02, 2025
The National Academy of Sciences has added eight UC Berkeley faculty members to its esteemed ranks of scholars and experts who advise governments and other organizations on subjects in academic fields ranging from chemistry and physics to psychology and economic policy. This year’s election of 120 members and 30 international members recognizes scholars’ distinguished and…
April 30, 2025
Many successful drugs are based on medicinal plants used and stewarded for generations by Native communities. A UC Berkeley doctoral student says these communities should also benefit. As a descendent of an indigenous Amazonian tribe, Maria Astolfi was concerned about research she conducted as a graduate student at UC Berkeley involving an extract of a…
April 28, 2025
Six UC Berkeley faculty members from a diverse range of fields are among nearly 250 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the organization announced in a recent press release. The new Berkeley electees include leading experts in mathematics, statistics, computer science, molecular biology, neurobiology and comparative literature. Since 1780, the…
April 28, 2025
Computational modeling gives us a peek inside these important microbial communities Within our gut live trillions of microorganisms, mostly in the form of dense, organized communities along the intestinal lining. These microbial clusters, known as biofilms, are dynamic ecosystems essential to digestion, immune function and protecting us from disease. Yet understanding how they work has…