Below are articles from various sources about members of MCB and their research.
Congratulations to MCB Assistant Professor Stephan Lammel, recipient of the 2019 C.J. Herrick Award in Neuroanatomy! This award from the American Association of Anatomists honors an early-career investigator who has made important contributions to biomedical science and the field of neuroanatomy.
Lammel will be honored at the AAA Closing Awards Ceremony Reception & Dinner in Orlando, Florida, in April 2019.
View all the 2019 AAA award recipients here.
New research from the lab of MCB Professor Daniel Feldman challenges the common assumption that lack of inhibition or too much excitation in neurons cause the disease symptoms of autism.
“Many groups are searching for ways to increase inhibition in the brain... on the assumption that increasing inhibition will restore the brain back to normal,” said Feldman. “But actually, our results suggest that loss of inhibition might represent a useful compensation that the brain is doing, or might be unrelated to disease symptoms.”
A remarkable new 3D map of the fly brain from the lab of MCB Professor & HHMI Investigator Eric Betzig allows researchers to visit any of the fly's 40 million synapses – and took only 3 days to produce.
This rapid 3D imaging technique may ultimately allow researchers to judge strength of neural connections and trace those involved in decision-making and memory, among many other uses. Watch the video >
Undergraduates: Here’s your chance to gain hands-on experience working with CRISPR technology! Enroll in our unique Summer 2019 workshop and learn the CRISPR research essentials.
Sponsored by Innovative Genomics Institute.
UC Berkeley MCB hosted its 2nd annual networking reception for over 100 MCB alumni and friends working in the healthcare, biotechnology, and financial industries during the 37th annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco earlier this week. The reception was a time to catch up with old classmates and faculty, make new connections with various Cal alumni (Chemistry, EECS and Bioengineering), and meet industry professionals from innovative companies wanting to create new ties. Continue reading >
New research from MCB Associate Professor David Savage and MCB & Chemistry Professor Jennifer Doudna shows that an enzyme called ProCas9 can be used to target specific cells during CRISPR gene editing.
“This is an extra layer of security you could put on the molecule to ensure accurate cutting,” said Savage.
Our department has much to celebrate and be thankful for this year, especially our extraordinary community!
Watch the 2018 holiday video and read the MCB Co-Chairs message here...
Congratulations to DNA Sequencing Facility director Hitomi Asahara, whose provisional patent is now available for licensing from UC Berkeley IPIRA. The provisional patent improves Sanger sequencing elongation speeds during DNA sequencing.
Earlier this year, Asahara received a UC Berkeley SPOT award for improving the efficiency and lowering the costs of operations at the DNA Sequencing Facility.
We are excited to announce Ellen Lumpkin will join the MCB faculty in the Division of Cell & Developmental Biology this July.
Dr. Lumpkin is currently an Associate Professor of Somatosensory Biology (in Dermatology) and of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University. She is also the co-director of the Thompson Family Foundation Initiative in CIPN & Sensory Neuroscience.
New research from MCB Assistant Professor Stephan Lammel challenges the long-standing presumption that dopamine exists primarily as a reward in response to pleasurable stimuli. Instead, Lammel's findings indicate that dopamine has a "yin-yang" personality and is released in response to both pleasurable and displeasurable stimuli as a means of changing neural circuits. Those changes then train the brain to either pursue or avoid those stimuli.
This new understanding of the function of dopamine can lead to new approaches in treating certain neurological disorders affected by dopamine, such as Parkinson's and substance addiction.