October 18, 2022
Sanjay Kumar, MD, PhD, is Chancellor’s Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley. He holds joint appointments in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 1996, Kumar earned his BS in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota, and in…
September 14, 2022
Teams led by researchers from UC Berkeley, the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), and Berkeley Lab have received a combined $11.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop biofuel and bioproducts from a photosynthetic micro-alga. The funding is part of $178 million in DOE awards granted to 37 projects that will develop new…
September 07, 2022
Phillip Messersmith is a professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley where he is the Class of 1941 Endowed Professor of Bioengineering and Materials Science and Engineering. His laboratory is interested in understanding structure-property relationships in biological materials and in using this information to design biologically inspired materials for use in healthcare. QB3-Berkeley: What is the…
August 19, 2022
This week UC Berkeley’s office for the Vice Chancellor for Research announced that Professor Sanjay Kumar has been selected to serve as the next director of the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences at UC Berkeley (QB3-Berkeley) effective September 1, 2022, following a campuswide search chaired by Professor Susan Marqusee. Kumar will succeed David Schaffer, who…
August 10, 2022
Sabeeha Merchant is a professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and a professor of plant biology in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, and a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her group studies photosynthetic metabolism and metalloenzymes and they…
July 29, 2022
David Schaffer remembers sitting on his father’s lap as a child, curiously delving into science books and crafting mnemonic phrases that instilled in him the building blocks of biology. “He was a biochemist who would make up these silly rhymes that helped me remember microorganisms or parts of the body, like, ‘Your sternum can burn’em,’”…
July 26, 2022
Researchers have taken an important step toward understanding the microscopic battle that plays out between our lung cells and the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. A UC Berkeley-led study has identified specific proteins within our bodies that can promote or protect us from SARS-CoV-2 infections, potentially opening the door to new antiviral therapies. In the…
July 20, 2022
Phillip Geissler (1974-2022) A message from College of Chemistry Dean Douglas S. Clark: Our community has been jolted by the news that Professor Phillip Geissler, 48, has died. Phill was hiking in Utah at the time of his death. Phill was the Aldo De Benedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and a renowned physical chemist, but…