Department News

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

September 21, 2004

 

Four years ago, a new weapon in the war on cancer made it to clinical trials accompanied by headlines and hope. Gleevec, a drug manufactured by Novartis, appeared to selectively turn off a specific cancer-causing protein like a light switch, stopping the progress of a severe form of leukemia in its tracks.

September 17, 2004
Assistant Professor Michael Eisen (Genetics & Development) was honored along with 4 other UC Berkeley junior faculty with the 2003 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers at a ceremony at the White House on September 9, 2004.

The Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) is the nation's top honor for scientists at the beginning of their careers.

September 08, 2004

One way to disrupt a mechanical process is to throw a wrench into the works. This also holds true for viruses, biological parasites that hijack a cell's reproductive mechanisms to replicate themselves. The key though to successful sabotage is knowing precisely where to toss the wrench.

September 08, 2004
Professor Jeremy Thorner has received the 2004 L&S Distinguished Research Mentoring of Undergraduates Award and Professor Gary Firestone has been awarded the 2004 Rhoda H. Goldman Award for Distinguished Faculty Advising of Undergraduates.

The Distinguished Research Mentor award is designed to honor faculty members in the College of Letters & Science who have performed exceptional service as research mentors for undergraduate students.

August 24, 2004

When UC Berkeley biologist Nipam Patel was searching for a new crustacean to study, one of his graduate students paid a visit to a large public aquarium. Rather than select an organism from one of the breeding tanks, the student sifted through the aquarium's filter system.

August 18, 2004

A University of California, Berkeley, chemist has put a new twist on the standard chemistry experiment: Instead of using a test tube or flask, she mixes and reacts chemicals in living organisms.

Carolyn Bertozzi's innovative approach involves chemicals that don't interact with the molecules in the body, only with each other. But her in vivo chemistry has great potential for studying cells in living organisms and creating new diagnostics, and perhaps treatments, for disease.

July 15, 2004

University of California, Berkeley, biochemist Hiroshi Nikaido, M.D., has received the 14th annual Bristol-Myers Squibb "Freedom to Discover" Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Diseases Research.

Nikaido, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UC Berkeley, was recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to understanding the mechanisms of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and insights that have led to the design of more effective antibiotics.

July 14, 2004

Carlos Bustamante is a mechanic. He tinkers with machines to see what makes them tick. He talks a lot about torque and force, compression and tension. Bustamante is not an engineer though. He's a UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry. And the devices he studies are the microscopic machines behind life itself--cells, proteins, molecular motors, and DNA.

Read the full article on the ScienceMatters@Berkeley website.

June 15, 2004

Assistant Professor Nicole King has been chosen as a 2004 Pew Biomedical Scholar. The prestigious award funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by UCSF provides $240,000 over four years to investigators early in thein careers. The title of Dr. King's abstract was "Choanoflagellates and the origin of animal multicellularity."

For more information see the official Press Release.

May 07, 2004

Professer in Residence Abby Dernburg was one of 57 scientists nationwide selected to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award was presented in Washington by the president's Science Advisor, John H. Marburger III.

For more information please see the press release at the UC Berkeley Newscenter.