Department News

The Department of Molecular and Cell Biology seeks applications for five faculty positions. We seek candidates with Ph.D. and/or M.D. degrees who have a strong interest in undergraduate and graduate teaching and demonstrated excellence, originality and productivity in research.

Applications should include a curriculum vitae; a list of publications; a brief description of research accomplishments; a statement of research objectives and teaching interests; and reprints of three most significant publications. Please arrange to have three letters of reference mailed to the address below. Potential reviewers should be referred to the Statement of Confidentiality found at: http://apo.chance.berkeley.edu/evalltr.html. Successful candidates are expected to join the faculty July 1, 2006 or thereafter.

The award will be presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting to be held in San Francisco, 1-5 April 2006.

Howard Hughes Investigator and Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Eva Nogales received the Cabot Science Award at the Chabot Space and Science Center's gala in June.

Dr. Nogales received the $5,000 award in recognition for her work in determining the structure of microtubules.

For more information see:

Chabot Space & Science Center Press Release (PDF)
Berkeleyen Article
Eva Nogales' Research Interest Page
Eva Nogales' Lab Homepage

Come join us at the first ever Cal Evo Devo Day! We would like to invite you to a half day mini-symposium about Evolution and Development research going on at Cal.

Date: Friday, September 9th

Time: 1:15-5pm, reception to follow

Place: Lipman Room, 8th floor Barrows Hall

Details: The strengths of both the MCB and IB departments create a unique environment for Evo Devo research, and we hope to encourage more people to cross the "bridge" to foster new and exciting interactions between the departments. The afternoon will include short talks from various faculty members as well as time for more informal discussions over refreshments at the following reception.

UC Berkeley professor Carolyn Bertozzi keeps a close watch on carbohydrates, but it's not because she's on a trendy diet. In her chemistry laboratory, Bertozzi pays close attention to the carbohydrates that dot the surface of cells.

Bertozzi, a professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and molecular biology, and her graduate students have devised new chemical tools to uncover how the sugar structures change based on various factors. Someday, their research could aid doctors in diagnosing cancer and other diseases.

"We work at the interface of chemistry and biology," says Bertozzi, a faculty scientist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "The chemical tools we develop allow us to probe these sugars to look at changes in their expression in different types of cells, both healthy and diseased."

Assistant Professor of Neurobiology Lu Chen has been selected as a 2005 Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research by the W.M. Keck Foundation.

Recipients of this prestigious award are selected for their research in the fundamental mechanisms of human disease and receive up to $1 million dollars over five years.

Dr. Chen was selected for her work developing "a novel hybrid cell system to explore how signaling proteins interact at nerve synapses. A variety of experimental methods will control which proteins interact. Such research could point the way toward creating functional synapses that might reverse conditions such as age-related cognitive decline."

For more information visit the W.M.Keck website or read the UC Berkeley Press Release.

Fifteen graduate students were presented with Outstanding GSI Awards (OGSI)at a ceremony at Alumni House on Monday, May 9th for their excellence in teaching in MCB courses.

The welcome was provided by Linda von Hoene, Director of the GSI Teaching and Resource Center and Rosemary Joyce, Chair of the Graduate Council's Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs.  Awards were presented by Associate Graduate Dean Joseph Duggan.  Recipients in MCB included two non-MCB GSI's, Annaliese Beery of Neuroscience and Oron Frenkel of the HMS-Joint Medical Program, and MCB students Raymond Chen, Benjamin Freedman, Lindsay Garrenton, Erin Green, Katherine "Kat" Harris, Han Lu, Nicole Meyer-Morse, Sarah Munchel, Yuko Nakajima, Catherine O'Connor, Rachel Shreter, Jessica Shugart and Peter Woodruff.

For more information see http://gsi.berkeley.edu/awards/ogsi.html

More than 100 years ago, Theodor Boveri proposed that errors in the segregation of genetic material (chromosomes) to two daughter cells during cell division could be a cause of cancer.Furthermore, chromosome segregation defects during meiotic germ cell divisions are responsible for many spontaneous abortions and can lead to birth defects such as Down syndrome. Despite its fundamental importance very little is known about the molecular origins of these potentially devastating errors.

View approximately sixty posters and partake in a delicious spring reception. Outstanding posters will be displayed at Cal Day, Saturday, April 16th.

On Saturday, April 9, 2005 the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and the College of Letters & Science are hosting a symposium in honor of Emeritus Professor of Neurobiology Gunther Stent.

The symposium will be held in the E. Morris Cox Auditorium (100 GPBB) from 9:00 to 5:30. Speakers include Sydney Brenner (Salk Institute for Biological Studies), Eric Wieschaus (Princeton University), John Searle (Department of Philosophy, UC Berkeley), Oliver Sacks (Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Dale Purves (Duke University Medical Center), Manfred Eigen (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry), and George Klein (Karolinska Institute).