Lab Members/Photos

Randy Schekman
schekman at berkeley dot edu

A brief biography of Randy on the HHMI website.

News about Randy's 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine.

Photos from the Schekman Symposium held in August 2014.

Stephanie Canon (admin coordinator)
stephaniecanon at berkeley dot edu

Nancy Hernandez Villegas (Neuroscience grad student)
nancy.hernandez.v at berkeley dot edu

I am interested in the study of the mechanisms involved in the intercellular trafficking of alpha-synuclein protein.

Leo Huang (undergrad)
leohuang at berkeley dot edu

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles that play an essential role in intercellular communication and the exchange of biological information between cells and organs. My aim is to set up a system to test whether stress signal is transported between cells via extracellular vesicles.

Arup Indra (visiting professor)
arup.indra at oregonstate dot edu

I am using novel biochemical approaches to characterize extracellular vesicles (EVs) and vesicle sub-populations from primary skin cells. I plan to determine how vesicle-mediated transfer of RNA and protein cargoes in an autocrine and paracrine manner control physiological and pathological changes during wound healing in mammals.

Xiaoman Liu (post-doc)
xiaoman.liu at berkeley dot edu

Exosomes are released by many cells to the extracellular space and may mediate cell-to-cell communication. In addition to proteins, exosomes transport various nucleic acids, such as mRNAs, miRNAs and non-coding RNAs to neighboring cells. However, the mechanism(s) that control the selective sorting of RNAs into exosomes remain incompletely explored. My work is to investigate the underlying mechanism(s) of exosomal RNA selection, which hopefully could pave the way to evaluate the function of exosomes in vivo in a situation that might rely on the delivery of a particular exosomal protein or RNA molecules to specific target cells.

Liang Ma (post-doc)
liangm92 at gmail dot com

Exosomes are small vesicles that are secreted from many metazoan cells, and can convey selected proteins and RNAs to target cells to regulate many cell functions. However, the molecular mechanism of sorting RNA into exosomes is poorly understood. I will investigate how RNAs are specifically sorted into exosomes.

Claudia Morales (lab assistant)
moralesacg at yahoo dot com

Jordan Ngo (grad student)
jordan.ngo at berkeley dot edu

The accumulation of misfolded proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum lumen activates a conserved proteostasis program known as the unfolded protein response. I am using novel biochemical and genetic approaches to investigate the role of extracellular vesicles in the intercellular control and propagation of proteostasis signaling.

Jasleen Singh (post-doc)
singh40 at berkeley dot edu

Exosomes are a class of small extracellular vesicles containing nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and other important biomolecules as cargoes. Secreted by most eukaryotic cells, exosomes are thought to mediate key intercellular communication. My work will focus on developing molecular and biochemical assays to understand three primary aspects of exosome biology: 1) How are certain RNAs selectively sorted into exosomes? 2) How are exosomes delivered to and taken up by the recipient cells? 3) What are the functions of exosomes in recipient cells and to what extent can those functions be attributed to a particular cargo?

Angela Sun (undergrad)
angelasun100 at berkeley dot edu

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles that play an important role in intercellular communication. In the central nervous system, exosomes contribute to the progression of glioblastoma and neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, little is known about the secretion mechanisms of extracellular vesicles in neuronal cells. I will explore the underlying mechanisms of exosomal cargo secretion and packaging during neural differentiation. 

Justin Williams (grad student)
justin_krish at berkeley dot edu

I am interested in understanding the mechanisms through which protein and RNA are selected and sorted into exosomes.

Shenjie Wu (post-doc)
wusj at berkeley dot edu

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement. Alpha-synuclein, a presumably intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) implicated in PD pathogenesis, has been reported to be exported and mediate its cell toxicity via cell-to-cell transmission. However, the exact biochemical pathway and physiological implications of this phenomenon have not been fully understood. I intend to pursue the mechanism of alpha-synuclein secretion using various approaches.

Congyan Zhang (post-doc)
zhangcongyan at berkeley dot edu

Exosomes are widely secreted by many cells. They can deliver protein and RNA cargos into extracellular space. However, how the protein-RNA cargos are sorted into exosomes is still unclear. Furthermore, exosomes can be used as a vehicle to deliver protein and RNA therapy due to the advantages of low immunogenicity and toxicity as well as high stability. I will explore the mechanism by which exosomal cargos are sorted and the application of exosome-delivered protein-RNA therapy.