Professor Leah Guthrie works to understand how the microbiome metabolites and proteins communicate with our human cells to influence our physiology and pathophysiology. Learn more about Guthrie in this interview with QB3.
faculty
Delcassian receives seed funding for cancer research
Professor Derfogail Delcassian has been awarded $1 million in non-dilutive seed funding to accelerate the commercialization of her work on targeted molecular therapies for hard-to-treat cancers.
Acid-degradable lipid nanoparticles enhance the delivery of mRNA
Research published today in Nature Nanotechnology by Niren Murthy’s lab presents a new acid-degradable linker that rapidly hydrolyzes in endosomes but is stable in the blood. This development could significantly increase the efficiency of delivering mRNA through lipid nanoparticles, critical for delivering mRNA-based therapies to cells.
New recyclable adhesives can be easily adapted for medical, consumer and industrial applications
Researchers in Professor Messersmith’s lab have created a family of polymers from a new, stabilized alpha-lipoic acid, which could lead to versatile, high-performance and environmentally friendly recyclable adhesives.
Revealing the Mysteries Within Microbial Genomes
Adam Arkin’s lab has developed a new technique called, 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.
Michael Yartsev named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Bioengineering Professor Michael Yartsev has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator! Yartsev is among 26 of the nation’s leading scientists to be granted this significant recognition. The honor comes with substantial research investment that enables Investigators to pursue innovative and groundbreaking research.
Scientists Discover Next-Generation System for Programmable Genome Design
A team of researchers led by Professor Patrick Hsu has discovered the first DNA recombinase that is programmable, allowing the user to specify any desired genomic target sequence and any donor DNA molecule to be inserted. The bridge recombinase mechanism promises to expand genome editing beyond CRISPR and RNA interference (RNAi) to offer a unified mechanism for programmable DNA rearrangements. Bioengineering graduate student Nicholas Perry is also a lead author of the study, along with other researchers from the Arc Institute.
So to speak: how bats and humans communicate
Berkeley researchers led by Professor Michael Yartsev, working with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, have identified the part of the brain in Egyptian fruit bats that controls vocalizations and found that it contains similar neural wiring and genetics to the part of the human brain that controls speech.
Putting on the heat
Professor Seung-Wuk Lee discusses pyroelectricity: the finding that viruses can generate electricity when exposed to heat, and how this may pave the way for next-generation biosensors and diagnostic tools.