Systems and Synthetic Biology

Recent news:

head and shoulders photo of Adam Arkin standing in hallway

Arkin Lab receives ARPA-H award for microbiome engineering

November 5, 2024

Adam Arkin has been granted an award of over $20 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to pursue microbiome engineering to create probiotic bacterial communities that prevent and treat lung pathogens.

brain section image showing wide distribution of edited cells in the cortex

Could a new medical approach fix faulty genes before birth?

November 5, 2024

Murthy lab and UC Davis have developed a unique mRNA delivery method for in-utero gene editing for neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Boba-seq logo, created by former Arkin Lab undergraduate student researcher Davian Ho. A drawing of a large cup of boba tea, where the boba pearls represent expressed genes

Revealing the Mysteries Within Microbial Genomes

August 20, 2024

Adam Arkin’s lab has developed a new technique, barcoded overexpression bacterial shotgun library sequencing (Boba-seq), that will make it much easier for researchers to discover the traits or activities encoded by genes of unknown function in microbes.

digital photo mockup of new climate hub building

Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub: Berkeley’s new home for climate innovation

May 20, 2024

Professor David Schaffer will lead the new Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub, an incubator that will provide resources and support to entrepreneurs in renewable energy and clean technology.

photo of Dueber in lab coat working at lab bench

Berkeley’s ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship combats climate change

May 17, 2024

Professors John Dueber and David Schaffer are featured in this article highlighting campus research and entrepreneurship in sustainability.

Photo of Bolt Threads cofounders Dan Widmaier (left) and David Breslauer in their manufacturing facility

Bolt Threads going public

October 5, 2023

Bolt Threads, a company co-founded by BioE PhD alumnus David Breslauer, plans to go public in a SPAC deal that values the one-time unicorn at $250 million. Bolt Threads uses synthetic biology and other techniques to sustainably produce engineered biomaterials, including synthetic spider silk and mushroom-based faux leather.

Arkin speaking at SynBioBeta 2019

Uncovering the Secrets of the Smallest Phages

February 23, 2023

In a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology, Professor Adam Arkin and collaborator Vivek Mutalik report advances in understanding phage biology that bring us closer to using these small predators to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

photo of Keasling in lab

Bacteria for Blastoff: Using Microbes to Make Supercharged New Rocket Fuel

June 30, 2022

New research led by Professor Jay Keasling took inspiration from an extraordinary antifungal molecule made by Streptomyces bacteria to develop a totally new type of fuel that has projected energy density greater than the most advanced heavy-duty fuels used today, including the rocket fuels used by NASA.

photo of cloth being dyed

Best Inventions of 2021: Huue

November 15, 2021

Congratulations BioE startup Huue and founder PhD alumna Tammy Hsu! Huue’s process for creating environmentally friendly indigo dye through synthetic biology has been named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2021.