Department News

Below are articles from various sources about members of MCB and their research.

March 17, 2017

MCB Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Diana Bautista has been appointed to the "Class of 1943 Memorial Chair." The endowed chair is rotated among disciplines and departments at the discretion of the Chancellor.

March 15, 2017

An alumnus of the MCB Community returns -- Dr. Marion Nestle, (who received her PhD in Molecular Biology from UC Berkeley in '68) will present the Weinstock lecture at the International House at 4:10pm on March 21, 2017. Join us for her lecture "Food Politics and the Twenty-First Century Food Movement." 

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February 28, 2017

MCB Professor and Co-Chair, Nipam Patel, and his lab share insights into how butterfly wings develop. Watch this new video, created by the California Academy of Sciences, posted on its bioGraphic website:

February 22, 2017

In 2016-2017, UC Berkeley's Bakar Fellows Program is supporting the cutting edge research of two MCB faculty members -- Professor Kathy Collins and Professor Jim Hurley. Read more about their exciting and entrepreneurial work:
Aiding Cells’ Strategy to Survive (Hurley's work)
Trading in the Scalpel for a Sharper Blade (Collins' work)

February 17, 2017

"The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the inventions claimed in the pending U.S. patent application filed by the Doudna/Charpentier research group and the patents and applications filed by the Broad Institute are separately patentable from one another, thereby moving the Doudna/Charpentier group’s application closer to issuance as a U.S. patent."

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February 09, 2017

The lab of MCB & Chemistry Professor and HHMI Investigator Chris Chang has developed a new way to transport chemicals throughout the body by bioconjugating them to amino acids through a process known as redox activated chemical tagging, or ReACT. The invention has been called “a chemical swiss army knife” by Chang due to its wide range of potential applications, from drug delivery systems to water purification processes.

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February 08, 2017

MCB Affiliated Professor Dan Fletcher (who is Chair of the Department of Bioengineering) was one of the thirteen UC Berkeley faculty that were named Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigators. Fletcher "will launch a new effort to map the topography and spatial organization of cell-cell surfaces, starting with macrophages in their interactions with tumor cells."

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February 07, 2017

The MCB Department is fully committed to supporting, in every way possible, all members of our department, irrespective of their national origin, religious background, race, color, age, sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. We are particularly troubled by the recent Executive Order on Immigration because it threatens members of our community and the practice of science. MCB scientists and staff come from many countries and engage in numerous international collaborations. Our research is enhanced by the diversity of perspectives provided by scientists from different backgrounds including international scientists. In addition, everyone’s science benefits when all scientists can travel freely between the U.S. and other countries to communicate directly with each other. We will resist policies that threaten our scientific culture and values. 

February 06, 2017

HHMI Investigator and MCB Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development Michael Eisen has announced that he will run for U.S. Senate to offer a scientific voice to the political process.

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February 02, 2017

"Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded the Japan Prize today for their invention of the revolutionary gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9, which has swept into research labs around the world and is already yielding new therapies for cancer and hereditary diseases."

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