March 25, 2026
A miniaturized system developed by UC Berkeley researchers can mimic the effects of nearly four decades of aging with high accuracy, potentially enabling rapid drug development and cheaper testing. Over one billion people worldwide are over 60, and the population is projected to more than double by 2050. But as more people live into their…
March 10, 2026
New approach could lead to therapies for a wider range of diseases and with fewer side effects Lymph nodes, considered the command centers of our immune system, often get swollen and stiff when fighting infection. Now, a UC Berkeley-led team of researchers has discovered that this mechanical change may help instruct our immune system to…
February 17, 2026
A Sloan Research Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards available to early-career researchers. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today announced the names of the 126 early-career researchers selected to receive 2026 Sloan Research Fellowships, including seven from UC Berkeley. The fellowships honor exceptional scholars in the U.S. and Canada whose creativity, innovation and research accomplishments…
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…