Revealing the Mysteries Within Microbial Genomes

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

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.

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Scientists Discover Next-Generation System for Programmable Genome Design

MoA animation by Visual Science, 2024

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.

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So to speak: how bats and humans communicate

flying bat Photo by Yuval Barkai @bats.tlv

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.

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Putting on the heat

computer graphic showing towers of red and blue DNA and flames

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.

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Cool it down

Tony Consiglio, Alan Maida and Boris Rubinsky in their Etcheverry Hall lab. (Photo by Adam Lau/Berkeley Engineering)

How isochoric preservation can protect food, organs — and even the planet. Professor Boris Rubinsky discusses the state of the art in cryogenics and preservation.

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Viral Pyroelectricity with Seung-Wuk Lee

computer graphic showing towers of red and blue DNA and flames

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.

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Yartsev wins Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award 2024

photo of Yartsev near trees

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) has selected Professor Michael Yartsev for the 2024 Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award, given in recognition of outstanding and innovative work from all areas of neuroscience. The award will be presented at the FENS Forum conference in Vienna.

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