Diana Bautista, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology, Donald C. Rio, professor of molecular and cell biology and Amy Herr, assistant professor of bioengineering have been singled out as innovators by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will receive special grants designed to fund "transformative research" that could lead to major advances in medical science.
Department News
Below are articles from various sources about members of MCB and their research.
September 30, 2010
More than 200 UC Berkeley postdocs, their family and friends, and members of the campus community gathered at the Bancroft Hotel to celebrate postdocs and their important contributions to the campus.
Postdocs offered their own expression of appreciation honoring Rebecca Heald, professor of molecular and cell biology, as the first recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring.
September 10, 2010
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have taken genes from grass-eating fungi and stuffed them into yeast, creating strains that produce alcohol from tough plant material cellulose that normal yeast can't digest.
The feat could be a boon for the biofuels industry, which is struggling to make cellulosic ethanol ethanol from plant fiber, not just cornstarch or sugar economically feasible.
September 01, 2010
Karsten Weis, UC Berkeley professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Jan Liphardt, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, and colleagues have traced with unprecedented resolution the paths of cargos moving through the nuclear pore complex (NPC), a selective nanoscale aperture that controls access to the cell's nucleus, and answered several key questions about its function. The research was published September 1st in the journal Nature.
August 27, 2010
Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Randy Schekman has been awarded the 2010 Massry Prize given by the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation.
June 23, 2010
The Governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency created by proposition 71, today approved $25 million to fund 19 projects intended to overcome immune rejection of transplanted stem cells. Recipients included Professors of Immunology and Pathogenesis David Raulet and Ellen Robey.
June 07, 2010
Professors of biochemistry and molecular biology Susan Marqusee and Carlos Bustamante show in new research that, in T4 lysozyme - an enzyme related to one responsible for a form of amyloidosis - a subtle detail of topology ensures that the protein either folds all at once or not at all, avoiding dangerous intermediates.
June 03, 2010
Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Carolyn Bertozzi was awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for her achievements in biotechnology.
May 28, 2010
David J. Julius, now Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Physiology at UCSF, is the recipient of the $1 million Run Run Shaw Foundation Prize in Life Science and Medicine (see attached press release) for his work identifying the ion channels involved in various aspects of nociception (pain perception).
May 11, 2010
Jennifer Doudna and John Ngai, both UC Berkeley professors of molecular and cell biology, are among 78 grants announced today (Monday, May 10) by the foundation in the fourth funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations. The winning proposals, selected from almost 2,700 in this round alone, were submitted by scientists in 18 countries on six continents.