Campus Science News

The following news items are from various campus, college and department sources.

Taner Sen and Colleagues Sequence Complex Oat Pangenome
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.
Department of Bioengineering
Electrostatics effects of jumping nematodes
Flows of tracer particles show the attractive force of a positively charged fruit fly. Parasitic nematodes use this static charge to leap onto the insects. Victor Ortega Jimenez/University of California, Berkeley

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...
Department of Integrative Biology
Galicia receives L&S Staff Achievement Award

Carina Galicia has received the College of Letters & Science Staff Achievement Award for 2024-2025. Read more here. 
Department of Integrative Biology
Fletcher elected to National Academy of Medicine

Daniel FletcherProfessor (Affiliated) of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology Daniel Fletcher has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Fletcher was recognized "For the development of mobile phone-based microscopy to diagnose infectious diseases in developing countries, and for contributions to the mechanistic understanding of biological self-assembly and mechanotransduction." Read more in the National Academy of Medicine press release. 
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Alumnus Connor Tou named Stat Wunderkind
BioE alumnus Connor Tou (B.S. 2020) has been named a 2025 STAT Wunderkind by by STAT News - an award that honors early-career scientists whose creativity and perseverance are helping to reshape biomedical research and health care.
Department of Bioengineering
Galicia receives L&S Staff Achievement Award

Carina GaliciaCarina Galicia, Director of Administration and Operations for MCB and Biosciences Divisional Services, has received the College of Letters & Science Staff Achievement Award for 2024-2025. This award recognizes staff who have demonstarted an outstanding commitment to Berkeley's shared mission of  teaching, research and public service. Galicia and other award recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony on November 4, 2025. 
 
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology