June 29, 2022
Pancreatic cancer, though rare, is one of the deadliest of cancers, killing nearly 50,000 people yearly and doing so quickly, primarily because it metastasizes rapidly through the body. Barely one in 10 people survive beyond five years. But a discovery by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests a new way to slow or…
June 28, 2022
David Schaffer has been appointed the next executive director of QB3, the institute announced today. A professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, bioengineering, and molecular and cell biology, Schaffer holds over 50 patents; his lab’s research has spawned eight companies to commercialize stem cell and gene therapies. The appointment was made jointly by the chancellors…
June 28, 2022
Coming from a long line of Iowa farmers, David Savage always thought he would do research to improve crops. That dream died in college, when it became clear that any genetic tweak to a crop would take at least a year to test; for some perennials and trees, it could take five to 10 years. Faced with…
June 28, 2022
Daniel Fletcher is the Chatterjee Professor of Bioengineering and Biophysics and a faculty member of the Bioengineering Department, an affiliated faculty of the Molecular and Cell Biology Department, and a Visiting Investigator of the Gladstone Institutes at UCSF. He is also a Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and co-director of…
June 22, 2022
Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Development, and Physiology Samantha Lewis was named one of the 2022-2023 Hellman Fellows for her proposal “Exploring mitochondrial DNA replication proteins in functional assemblies in vivo”. This award, from the Society of Hellman Fellows Fund, was designed to support early-career faculty who have shown evidence of their promise for distinction…
June 16, 2022
Michelle Chang, a professor of chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Berkeley, has been named the 2022 Centenary Prize winner(link is external) by the Royal Society of Chemistry for her “seminal contributions in biosynthesis and biocatalysis to advance energy and environmental science and biomedical research, and for excellence in communication. Professor Chang stated, “I think…
June 14, 2022
From artificial ligaments and a novel approach to cancer treatment to “soft” batteries and a way to give voice to silent speech, new innovations from UC Berkeley faculty are getting a big vote of support from the Bakar Fellows program. Seven faculty members have been selected to receive the 2022 Bakar Fellows Spark Award, which…
May 19, 2022
Aaron Streets received a BS in physics and a BA in art at UCLA. He completed his PhD in applied physics at Stanford University with Dr. Stephen Quake. Streets then went to Beijing, China as a Whitaker International Postdoctoral Fellow and a Ford postdoctoral fellow and worked with Dr. Yanyi Huang in the Biodynamic Optical Imaging…