MCB faculty member, Jamie H. D. Cate, received one of the first grants awarded by the BP-sponsored Energy Biosciences Institute.

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Professor John Kuriyan and Professor Jasper Rine are among 212 scholars, scientists, artists, civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.

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Professor Michael Botchan and Professor Jasper Rine are among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the nation's most prestigious societies of scholars engaged in science and engineering research.

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Professor John Ngai, Coates Family Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Functional Genomics Laboratory at UC Berkeley, and his colleagues have found that insulin-like growth factor (IGF) plays a critical role in setting up the connections between chemical detectors in the nose and the brain's olfactory centers.

Professor Emeritus of Immunology Robert Isaac Mishell, MD died of heart failure on March 6, 2008 at the age of 73. Co-author of 45 publications, he invented the Mishell-Dutton culture technique in 1967 which is still in use today.

The 2008 CDB Spring Symposium on the Cell Biology of Microbial Pathogenesis will be held on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008, in 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building. Visit the symposium website for information and registration.

We are pleased to announce the Integrating Evolution, Development and Genomics (IEDG) 2008 conference. This student-organized meeting is the second iteration of the evo-devo meeting held at UC Berkeley in May 2006.

Register now for this exciting, upcoming conference!

Michael is one of 29 recipients of these awards which will be announced Wednesday, September 19, 2007, in Washington, D.C..

For additional information, please see the press release >

On August 10, 2007, the campus community lost Robert (Bob) K. Mortimer, one of its kindest, most generous, members who is justly credited as being the father of his field. Bob’s pioneering work led to thousands of scientific careers dedicated to the study of that glorious microbe, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, responsible for such pleasures of life as beer, bread, wine.

Eminent biochemist Daniel E. Koshland Jr., former editor of the journal Science and a tireless booster of the biological sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, died Monday, July 23, 2007 following a massive stroke. Koshland, a long time professor of Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and a resident of Lafayette, Calif., was 87.

The first analysis of the genome of the sea anemone shows it to be nearly as complex as the human genome, and researchers say it provides major insights into the common ancestor of not only humans and sea anemones, but of nearly all multi-celled animals.

Professors of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Jennifer Doudna and Carolyn Bertozzi, along with the Berkeley Health Sciences Initiative (HSI), will share a $1.8 million gift from Gilead Sciences, Inc over the next four years.

For additional information see the press release at http://ls.berkeley.edu/?q=node/499.

Professor G. Steven Martin became Chair and Professor Michael Botchan became co-Chair on July 1, 2007. In addition, the Department welcomes three new division heads: John Kuriyan for BMB, Michael Levine for GGD, and Ehud Isacoff for Neurobiology. Division Heads Astar Winoto in Immunology, and David Drubin in CDB will remain in their current roles.

Amar Kishan, a spring 2007 graduate in Neurobiology, was one of five undergraduates in the running for the University Medal this year, and one of four finalists. He was also awarded this year's MCB Departmental Citation, which represents the highest achievement by a graduating senior in the MCB Department, not only in terms of overall grade point average, but also in major course work, the quality of research, and such other factors that indicate promise of great success in the student's career.