Department News

New research published in Nature from Assistant Adjunct Professor Professor Karen Davies and Associate Professor David Savage reveals the structure of NDH, a protein structure necessary for photosynthesis. This new molecular blueprint will allow researchers to directly test hypotheses of how NDH facilitates sugar production.

“This work will lead to a better understanding of how photosynthesis occurs, which could allow us to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis in plants and other green organisms – potentially boosting the amount of food, and thus biomass, they produce,” said lead researcher Davies.

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A new paper published in Nature from the lab of MCB Associate Professor Ahmet Yildiz shows how the structure of dynein, a family of cytoskeletal motor proteins, determines its directionality. By engineering variants of dynein with altered stalk angles, the researchers uncover why all dyneins move toward only the minus end of a microtubule during cytoskeletal movement.

The research is a collaboration with scientists from the Medical Research Council in the UK and Istanbul Technical University.

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Congratulations to Professors Daniel Fletcher and Iswar Hariharan, two new Miller Professors from MCB! The Miller Professorship award allows UC Berkeley faculty the opportunity to join the interdisciplinary community surrounding the Miller Institute and pursue new research directions.

A new paper published in Nature from the labs of MCB Professors Jennifer Doudna and Eva Nogales reveals the power and potential of the CRISPR-CasX gene editing enzyme. Compared to its well-studied cousins Cas9 and Cas12, CasX is much smaller and may be better shaped for more efficient genetic engineering.

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Congratulations to MCB & Chemistry Professor Chris Chang, winner of the 2019 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Chemistry from Tel Aviv University. This prize is awarded to outstanding young scientists under 45 years of age who exhibit great originality and excellence in their research.

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A new discovery from MCB Professor of the Graduate School Terry Machen and a team from the University of Saskatchewan may lead to new cystic fibrosis drugs that are more effective and better-tolerated by those suffering from the disease. 

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New research from the lab of MCB Professor Marla Feller shows visual stimuli can shape the visual system before eye opening.

These results open up a whole new area of research. “No one has essentially put a mouse in the dark before the eyes open, because they thought it would have no effect,” Feller says. Her next step is to investigate how light exposure before eye opening — which happens in nature for many species of mice — might influence the development of the circuitry within the retina itself.

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Congratulations to MCB Professor Jeffery Cox, Professor Britt Glaunsinger, and Associate Professor Arash Komeili on their elections as Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology! They join a cohort of scientists from around the world who have made significant contributions to the advancement of microbiology.

View all the 2019 AAM Fellows 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.”

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