Congratulations to Craig Miller on his promotion to MCB Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development!

The Miller laboratory studies how pattern forms during development and changes during evolution. Read more about the Miller lab and their research. 

Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology Carlos Bustamante has been selected to deliver one of the Martin Meyerson Berkeley Faculty Research Lecturers at UC Berkeley. The Faculty Research Lecture committee of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (DIVCO) selected Bustamante for his ground-breaking research which will be presented in his lecture to the broader Berkeley community in Spring 2025. 

MCB graduate students Izaiah Ornelas (Nuñez Lab), Sahim Wallace (Lareau Lab) and Kevin Williams (Bautista Lab) were named Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) 2024 Gilliam Fellows. These student-adviser pairs were recognized for their outstanding research and their commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in science. Read more about the Gilliam Fellows Program here. 

January 8, 2024
 

Assistant Professor of Neurobiology Andrea Gomez has been named a 2024 McKnight Scholar. This award, from the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, is an early-career award given to ten scientists who have demonstrated a commitment to neuroscience. Gomez's award will support her research on the molecular basis of psychedelic-induced plasticity. Read more about the McKnight Scholar Awards and Gomez' research project here. 

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology James Nuñez was named a 2024 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences. Nuñez is among 22 early-career scientists to receive this award for his research probing the mechanisms by which cells prevent transposable genetic elements from jumping around the genome. Read the Pew press release to learn more about the award. 

Professor of Neurobiology Yang Dan has been awarded the 2024 Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize. This award is for for her ground-breaking research on elucidating the brain circuits that control behavior with a special emphasis on those neuronal networks that control sleep. Read more about the Seeburg prize and Dan's research here. 

Professor of Neurobiology Doris Tsao was awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize in the field of neuroscience by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Tsao shares the prestigious neuroscience prize with two other scientists for the discovery and study of specific areas in the brain that recognize faces. Read more about the Kavli Prize and Tsao's research here.  

Congratulations to David Savage on his promotion to MCB Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology!

The Savage laboratory researches how protein machinery – including both enzymes and compartmentalization - facilitates the biochemistry of the cell. Read more...

Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology Samantha Lewis recently received an NSF CAREER award for 2024-2029 for her research on Mitochondrial genome partitioning and quality control.   

The MCB Department is proud of our newest graduates and all that they have accomplished! Please help us celebrate the 2024 MCB Commencement Honors awardees (below) as well as the success of our Senior Gift Campaign which raised funds to support undergraduate student research stipends and travel grants for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

2024 MCB PhD Commencement Honors
The following are the recipients of our annual graduate awards for research, academic, and community achievement.

We are excited to report that the MCB Class of 2024 senior gift campaign to raise funds for sponsored research stipends and travel grants has met their goal of $5,000! Thanks to the generosity of our community, more MCB students will be able to have transformative research experiences in the 2024-2025 academic year. The MCB Department will be matching the funds raised to bring the total support for students to $10,000. A special thanks to: David Bilder, Marla Feller, Bazilco Marveen Jean Simon, Mark Jenkinson, Roland Saekow, Raghavan Sarathy, Sum Ying Wu and all our anonymous donors. Go Bears! Learn more about the campaign here. 

Congratulations to the 2024 Bakar Fellows Program Spark Award recipients: Liana Lareau, Assistant Professor (Affiliated) of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development; Dan Nomura, Professor of Molecular Therapeutics; and Robert Saxton, Assistant Professor of Immunology and Molecular Medicine.

Professor of Molecular Therapeutics, Fyodor Urnov, was awarded the Horace Mann Medal from Brown University. This honor, given to a Brown Graduate School alumnus or alumna who has made significant contributions in his or her field, was awarded to Urnov for co-developing the toolbox for human genome and epigenome editing and his contributions to advancing the first-in-human applications in a clinic. Read more...

Learn about MCB's exciting research, new faculty, the Molecular Therapeutics Institute, alumni reception, and much more...

Read the Spring 2024 MCB Transcript here.

Congratulations to our faculty who received the departmental 2024 MCB Outstanding Faculty Awards!

Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology, Abby Dernburg, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). NAS members are selected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Read more...

The 3rd annual MCB Postdocs Research Showcase took place on March 28th, 2024. The event featured research talks from MCB postdocs across every division, a poster session, a keynote address by Christopher Barnes (Assistant Professor at Stanford), and a career panel featuring guests from diverse career paths including academia, startup, science policy, and a science incubator. The showcase was a huge success in highlighting the stellar research being done by MCB postdocs, supporting postdocs' professional development, and building community. 

James Hurley, Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology, was among 7 UC Berkeley faculty recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy selects members for their excellence with the aim to connect across disciplines to advance the common good. Read more...

Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development Nicole King and Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology Matthew Welch are among six UCB faculty elected as lifetime fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This honor recognizes their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. Read more...