berkeleyMCB

The team used engineered TnpBs to switch off genes involved in pigment synthesis, which allowed them to easily observe whether the gene editing had worked. The yellow blotches on these tobacco plants show where ChlH, a gene involved in chlorophyll synthesis, has been switched off. (Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar / UC Davis)

Out today in Nature Plants — IGI researchers Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar and Dave Savage (Savage Lab) develop a "jumping gene" enzyme into a precise genome-editing tool. Learn more: https://ow.ly/Sf8Z50Yj3Yi

Redefining lipid biology from droplets to ferroptosis James Olzmann will receive the ASBMB Avanti Award in Lipids at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, March 7–10, just outside of Washington, D.C.

Check out this article on MCB's James Olzmann's @olzmannlab.bsky.social research! 🧪Redefining lipid biology from droplets to ferroptosis www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...
@asbmb.bsky.social

MCB's Sam Lewis @samlewis.bsky.social is presenting at the annual ASBMB meeting if you're in the D.C. Metro area!

Basic research on Listeria bacteria leads to unique cancer therapy - Berkeley News Microbiologist Daniel Portnoy cofounded a startup that’s turning Listeria into a tool to improve survival in children with leukemia and potentially other cancer patients.

Check out this research from MCB's Dan Portnoy and collaborators! 🧪

news.berkeley.edu/2026/02/12/b...

Congrats to MCB's Jennifer Doudna @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social on this honor! 👏🎉

Carolyn Nguyen Named UC Berkeley’s First Churchill Scholar Since 2016 UC Berkeley senior Carolyn Nguyen (’26) has been selected as a 2026–27 Winston Churchill Scholar, making her Berkeley’s first recipient in a decade. Awarded by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the ...

Congrats to MCB undergrad Carolyn Nguyen on being named UC Berkeley's 1st Churchill Scholar since 2016! 👍🎉

ls.berkeley.edu/news/carolyn...

A little late on here but happy to share my 3rd first author paper from grad school finally out in Science Advances!! In collaboration with James Olzmann's group, we find that Tregs utilize FSP1/Aifm2 for preventing lipid peroxide accumulation and preserve their suppressive function in tumor models.

New #cancer #immunotherapy research funding has been awarded to IGI's Jennifer Doudna and Alex Marson by the American Cancer Society! Learn more here: https://ow.ly/JCAH50Y7Mwi

🧬 Meet MTI awardees Ross Wilson & Hanqin Li!

They’re using CRISPR base editors to nudge α-syn levels down, aiming to prevent Lewy bodies before they form. Translational genetics in action.

#CRISPR #Parkinsons #MTIAwards

🔗 Read more at moleculartherapeutics.org/2026-mti-par...

@rosswilsonlab.org

Congrats to MTI's Parkinson’s Therapeutics Awardees including MCB's Ross Wilson, Hanqin Li, Eunyong Park & Laurie Wang! 🎉👏 @rosswilsonlab.org

Susan Marqusee elected to NAS leadership Council

Congrats to MCB's Susan Marqusee @marquseelab.bsky.social on being elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) @nasonline.org Council! 👏🎉

www.nasonline.org/news/2026_pr...

2026 MCB Lisa Eshun-Wilson Community Awardees: Izaiah Ornelas & Julia Falo-Sanjuan

Congrats to the 2026 MCB Lisa Eshun-Wilson Community Awardees: Izaiah Ornelas @izaiahornelas.bsky.social & Julia Falo-Sanjuan! 👏Read more about their exceptional leadership and commitment to community engagement and mentorship.
mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

Life in four dimensions: When biology outpaces the brain Nobel laureate Eric Betzig will discuss his research on information transfer in biology from proteins to organisms at the 2026 ASBMB Annual Meeting.

Featuring MCB's Eric Betzig! Life in four dimensions: When biology outpaces the brain www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...

David Bilder, Rebecca Heald, James Hurley and Gary Karpen receive Miller Research Professorship Awards

Congratulations to MCB faculty David Bilder, Rebecca Heald, James Hurley and Gary Karpen on receiving Miller Research Professorship Awards! 👏🎉 @bilderlab.bsky.social @jimhurley.bsky.social
mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

ASBMB members receive ASM awards Jennifer Doudna, Michael Ibba and Kim Orth were recognized by the American Society for Microbiology for their achievements in leadership, education and research.

ASBMB member news

Congratulations to @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social, Michael Ibba and Kim Orth, who were recognized by @asm.org for their achievements in leadership, education and research.
www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...

We are seeking a new Staff Research Associate: 75% research, 25% lab management. A recent graduate with a major in molecular and cell biology or a similar field is ideal. Staff Research Associate (9613C), Molecular & Cell Biology.
careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucb/EMPL...

Selective disruption of lipid peroxide homeostasis in intratumoral regulatory T cells by targeting FSP1 enhances cancer immunity Deletion of Aifm2 disrupts Treg cell immunosuppression within tumors without inciting autoimmune pathology in mice.

Thrilled to have contributed to this work led by @jgcastillo.bsky.social during his PhD at UC Berkeley w/ Michel DuPage. Targeting FSP1 in T cells boosts anti-tumor immunity by relieving Treg suppression, revealing a new immunomodulatory therapeutic axis. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Dan Portnoy receives the 2025 Excellence in Advising Outstanding Faculty Award

Congratulations to MCB's Dan Portnoy on receiving the 2025 Excellence in Advising Outstanding Faculty Advisor award from Berkeley’s Council on Advising and Student Services! 🎉👏
mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

Fig. 5. Phylogenetic distribution of VchCAST activator and inhibitor genes. The phylogenetic distribution of 11 E. coli regulatory genes was mapped across 80,789 representative bacterial genomes from 92 phyla in Genome Taxonomy Database, release 214.0 (GTDB version 214.0) (72, 73), with at least 10 members. Homologs were identified using AnnoTree (60) and confirmed with the eggNOG database (70).

New in Science Magazine Science Advances from the Doudna Lab, Rubin Lab and Cress Lab —Identification of proteins influencing #CRISPR-associated #transposases for enhanced #GenomeEditing. Read here: https://ow.ly/U0s450XS82n

Stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome-editing activity TnpB is a compact RNA-guided endonuclease and evolutionary ancestor of CRISPR-Cas12 that offers a promising platform for genome engineering. However, the genome-editing activity of TnpBs remains limit...

New preprint 👉Doudna x Bryant x Jacobsen x Savage collaboration!
Work led by @zehanzhou.bsky.social, I. Saffarian-Deemyad, @honglue.bsky.social, T. Weiss
We dissect how stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome editing, revealing how unwound DNA states enhance cleavage
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Victoria Gray

Check out the latest episode of Rewriting the Code, featuring Jennifer Doudna and #SickleCell patient pioneer Victoria Gray who was cured with a #CRISPR-based treatment in a groundbreaking clinical trial: https://ow.ly/t6FY50XVNO7

A new review from the Doudna Lab lab on tissue-targeted in vivo delivery of gene editors: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-025-02945-w

#CRISPR #delivery

MCB postdoc Joseph Lobel (Ingolia Lab) receives the 2026 RNA Society Scaringe Young Scientist Award

Congratulations to MCB postdoc Joseph Lobel (Ingolia Lab) on receiving the 2026 RNA Society Scaringe Young Scientist Award! 👏🎉 @rnasociety.bsky.social @nickingolia.bsky.social
mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

One of our own has contributed to a newly approved medicine. The MTI at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social congratulates the Cytokinetics team and our Executive Director, Dr. Julia Schaletzky, on FDA approval of aficamten for #HCM, available starting mid-January.
#BerkeleyHealth #GoBears #patientsfirst

Collage of scientists and researchers working in labs, analyzing data, and collaborating on experiments in a modern research environment.

The world of genome editing is moving at a fast pace, and the IGI is right in the middle of the action. Here’s a look back at some of our most exciting news stories you don't want to miss from 2025. Read here: https://ow.ly/Z1n650XJXGS

#CRISPR

Celebrating Matt Welch’s Legacy as MBoC Editor-in-Chief: Innovations and Impact - ASCB As Matt Welch concludes his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC), we reflect on his impactful leadership and the journal’s evolution during his time at the helm. In this Q...

Celebrating Matt Welch’s @mattwelchlab.bsky.social Legacy as MBoC Editor-in-Chief: Innovations and Impact www.ascb.org/society-news...

Temporal photoproximity labeling of ligand-activated EGFR neighborhoods using MultiMap - Nature Chemical Biology A multiscale photoproximity labeling proteomics workflow captures dynamic neighborhoods of extracellular and intracellular epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor interactomes during early, middle and late signaling upon activation by EGF.

🎺New paper alert🎺 Out now in Nature Chemical Biology from IGI's Jennifer Doudna (Doudna Lab) and collaborators: Temporal photoproximity labeling of ligand-activated EGFR neighborhoods using MultiMap

Read here: https://ow.ly/izGo50XAkog

Nobel wins, psychedelic lilies and a mission to Mars: UC Berkeley's top stories of 2025 - Berkeley News A look at some of the campus's biggest stories chronicled by UC Berkeley News.

@mti-ucb.bsky.social, we are thrilled that our Executive Director, Dr. Julia Schaletzky, is highlighted in @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social’s Top Stories of 2025 for her work advancing campus viewpoint diversity. Read here to learn more: news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/15/n...

Research on the circadian rhythm of mosquitos seeks new ways to fight parasitic diseases Researchers are uncovering new ways to understand how malaria parasites and their mosquito carriers keep track of time.

Research in Filipa Rijo-Ferrera’s lab at #UCBerkeley shows both #parasites and their #mosquito hosts share #circadian rhythms that time biting and transmissibility. Targeting these internal clocks may offer a new path to reducing #malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses.
bit.ly/4q3El9s

ICYMI: #CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna joins @euanashley.bsky.social on Episode 3 of The Future of Medicine for a deep, wide-ranging conversation about how #GeneEditing is reshaping the landscape of modern medicine. Watch on our YouTube or stream here: https://bit.ly/43LGRZv