Congratulations to MCB postdoc Joseph Lobel (Ingolia Lab) on receiving the 2026 RNA Society Scaringe Young Scientist Award. This internationally competitive award honors one postdoc annually who has made a significant contribution to the broad area of RNA research. Read more about the 2026 RNA Society Scaringe Young Scientist Award here. 

Ammon Corl, a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, is highlighted in The New York Times for leading research that revealed the genetic variation behind the side-blotched lizard's unique rock-paper-scissors evolutionary game. Read the full article here. 

As the year draws to a close, we want to take a moment to express our deep gratitude for our MCB community of students, postdocs, staff, faculty, alumni and friends. 2025 has been a year marked by exciting discoveries, shared successes, and the remarkable resilience and dedication of our community. We hope you enjoy our year-end video highlighting some of our 2025 memories together. 

 

 

 

MCB microbiologists from the Portnoy lab team up with BASIS to run a microbiology outreach workshop at the Ellerhorst Elementary School. 

 

BioE Master of Engineering student Smrithi explains the career potential of a bioengineering degree.

Congratulations to bioengineering MD/PhD candidate Alice Tang, named to the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30! Tang has pioneered methods to analyze millions of health records using AI, uncovering revelations about complex diseases like Alzheimer’s. 

Learn about research from the lab of Assistant Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development Dipti Nayak.

Excerpt from UC Berkeley News: "A study finds that one microbe, a member of the Archaea, tolerates a little flexibility in interpreting the genetic code, contradicting a 60-year-old doctrine." Read the full Berkeley News article here. 

Learn about research from the lab of Dean of Biological Sciences, Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development Richard Harland. 

Learn about MCB's exciting research, new faculty, molecular medicine lab, department-wide retreat, alumni and more! 

Read the Fall 2025 MCB Transcript.

Learn about new research from the lab of Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development Nicole King.

An in-depth look at research by Professor Phil Messersmith, who draws on biology to develop cutting-edge materials for medicine. His lab creates adhesives and therapies designed to work with the human body, offering new ways to repair tissues, heal wounds and treat disease.

Professor Seung-Wuk Lee has pioneered a biomining technique that could be a clean and more sustainable way to mine the rare earth elements essential to modern technology. His lab genetically engineered a harmless virus to act like a “smart sponge” that grabs rare earth metals from water, and, with a gentle change in temperature and…

Professors Paul Adams, Adam Arkin, Patrick Hsu, and Jay Keasling have been recognized in the “2025 Highly Cited Researchers” list, meaning their work ranks in the top 1% of citations for their field and publication year in Clarivate’s Web of Science citation index

Biologists believed that urchin reproduction along the Pacific Coast would only be affected by marine heat waves at lethal ocean temperatures, a new study conducted by IB Assistant Professor Daniel Okamoto and other marine biologists at UC Berkeley suggests that this threshold of susceptibility, for urchins and other marine species, may be at lower temperatures than previously thought. Read the full article here.

The origins of ever-evolving life are never sufficiently explained; innovations in the complex origins of life are continually being expanded into new horizons. Join Wonderfest’s guest speaker, Distinguished IB Professor and Director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, Dr. Charles Marshall, on November 18, 2025, as he explores the integral role of energy and information in the past, present, and future of life on Earth. Read the full article here.

Michael Chamberlin

Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology Evan Miller was selected as one of 16 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Supplemental Grant recipients for 2025. This award, from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, provides funds to support Miller's research project "A Generalizable Method to Improve the Brightness of Long-Wavelength Fluorophores". Read more about the award and 2025 recipients here. 

A team led by Professors Kevin Healy and Niren Murthy have developed a microfluidic heart-on-a-chip, with which they were able to discover a lipid nanoparticle that could penetrate the dense heart muscle and efficiently deliver its cargo of therapeutic mRNA into heart muscle cells. This new drug delivery method and testing platform may pave the way to new cardiac treatments.

Adjunct Professor Taner Sen and his colleagues at the USDA and beyond have assembled and annotated the genomes of 33 wild and domesticated oat lines, along with an atlas of gene expression across in 23 of these lines, which will enable future efforts to even more hardy and productive strains of the popular grain.

Assistant Professor Victor Ortega-Jiménez and his lab have discovered that jumping entomopathogenic nematodes can be electrostatically attracted by the natural electric fields of the flying insects, thus increasing the effectiveness attachment to distant hosts and likelihood of infection. Read more...