January 14, 2026
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientist Dan Fletcher was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in October, 2025. He joins 90 other new members and 10 new international members. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have…
January 13, 2026
Novel approach offers a way to stop deadly infections without using antibiotics In the next 25 years, more than 39 million people worldwide could die from antibiotic-resistant infections. With superbugs on the rise due to antibiotic misuse and overuse, researchers are searching for new ways to effectively fight bacterial infections to save lives. Now, a…
January 01, 2026
Findings could lead to eco-friendly plastics and other materials UC Berkeley professor Ting Xu has spent more than seven years trying to figure out how to design synthetic polymers with protein-like behaviors. Now, she and a team of researchers have unlocked “design rules” that upend long-held views on polymers and could pave the way for eco-friendly plastics…
November 20, 2025
The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 amino acids. But certain groups of microbes have an expanded genetic code, in which one or two additional amino acids are inserted into the protein — a finding that has been leveraged for bioengineering.…
November 19, 2025
Two years ago, a novel analysis by UC Berkeley researchers pointed to comb jellies as the root of the animal tree of life. Another Berkeley group now says it’s sponges. Photo by Alison Yin, courtesy of HHMIBiologists who study the evolutionary origin of animals got a bit of a surprise this month when a new…
November 12, 2025
Sustainable biomining approach uses genetically engineered viruses Today’s high-tech electronics and green energy technologies would not function without rare earth elements (REEs). These 17 metals possess unique properties essential to creating items like the phosphors that illuminate our mobile phone displays and the powerful magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines. But extracting these…
November 10, 2025
Nature has inspired many scientific breakthroughs — and for Phillip Messersmith, it’s a blueprint for healing. From marine mussels to mice, Messersmith draws on biology to develop cutting-edge materials for medicine. The professor of bioengineering and of materials science and engineering makes adhesives and therapies designed to work with the human body, offering new ways…
November 10, 2025
Worldwide, more than 500,000 children under age five die each year from gastrointestinal bacterial infections, largely in communities lacking safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure. To address this public health threat, scientists need to better understand how these pathogens spread. Now, a team led by Amy Pickering, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has discovered…