QB3-Berkeley postdoc Usha Lingappa awarded Branco Weiss Fellowship

QB3-Berkeley is thrilled to share that Usha Lingappa, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Sabeeha Merchant, a QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate, has been awarded a Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science. This highly competitive international fellowship supports outstanding postdoctoral researchers pursuing unconventional and socially relevant science. Lingappa will receive up to CHF 600,000 over five…

Scientists complete the most thorough analysis yet of India’s genetic diversity

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…

Three people in business suits stand together on a stage at an award ceremony, smiling at the camera. The person in the center holds a certificate.

Jay Keasling Named 2025 Department of Energy/National Academy of Inventors Innovator of the Year

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…

An HT-MEK device being used by researcher.

Unlocking nature’s tiny engines: enzymes

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…

Three researchers in a low-lit room look at algae in a photobioreactor.

Algae’s bedtime routine: How tiny organisms manage stress to power the planet

QB3-Berkeley scientists peek in on algae at night to discover how these organisms prepare for another stressful day on the job. After a long day at work, we humans might recharge by sipping tea, soaking in a candle-lit bubble bath, and finally getting some shut eye. What do algae do to unwind? These tiny photosynthesizers…

Eva Nogales elected as Fellow of the Royal Society

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…

Members of the Nicolas Altemose stand around a table outside of a building on the Stanford University campus.

Focus on: Nicolas Altemose

This month, we’re highlighting an alumnus of a QB3-Berkeley lab by speaking with Nicolas Altemose who was a graduate student in Aaron Streets’ lab. Nicolas Altemose is an assistant professor of genetics at Stanford University and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. The Altemose lab develops new experimental and analytical tools to study how chromatin proteins…

People milling around in an open atrium.

Deadline extended to May 19: QB3-Berkeley seeks student communications assistant

QB3-Berkeley seeks a talented, reliable, organized, and design-minded student to join our team as a communications and administrative assistant. This position will work with QB3-Berkeley’s leadership to help us communicate our research, outreach, programming, and events to the UC Berkeley community and beyond. UC Berkeley students who have strong verbal and written communication skills and…