berkeleyMCB

Jennifer Doudna named 2026 Priestley Medalist by the American Chemical Society.

Congrats to MCB's Jennifer Doudna @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social on receiving the 2026 ACS Priestley Medal from the @acs.org! 👏🏅
www.acs.org/pressroom/ne...

Grateful to everyone who brought #BayAreaBiotechDay to life yesterday at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! It was incredible to see the energy in the room and the cutting-edge advances shared by leaders in both academia and industry. Excited to see what’s next for biotech!

An illustration of a DNA strand surrounded by faces. Artist: Saurabh Singh.

New research from Priya Moorjani's lab offers insights into India’s genomic legacy.

Postdocs @lauritsskov.bsky.social and @ekerdoncuff.bsky.social traced Indian's ancestry to three main sources. Read the findings in this story by grad student Jules Perez: bit.ly/3IK46vh

@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social undergrads, there is still space in this course on the cellular, genetic, and developmental basis of evolution taught by Professor Nicole King and me this Fall. Find out why, as Dobzhansky, said "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

🧬📈 The UC Regents approved the IGI-Bakar Labs building, expanding lab space for the @innovativegenomics.bsky.social - founded by MTI board member Jennifer Doudna - and building out Bakar Labs - championed by MTI ally David Schaffer.

📰 Read more at inspire.berkeley.edu/o/crispr-res...

Out today in @natbiotech.nature.com, IGI's @urnov.bsky.social and leaders across the #biotech industry on expanding patient access to #CRISPR cures with platform technology.

Structure of an archaeal ribosome reveals a divergent active site and hibernation factor - Nature Microbiology Sequence and structural analyses reveal a divergent peptidyl transferase centre and a hibernation factor in archaea.

Out now:

Structure of an archaeal ribosome reveals a divergent active site and hibernation factor

@jhdcate.bsky.social @banfieldlab.bsky.social @diptinayak.bsky.social & co

#microsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CRISPR researchers and startup entrepreneurs will share new building in UC Berkeley's Innovation Zone - Berkeley News A planned addition to the campus's Innovation Zone will expand lab space for the Innovative Genomics Institute and build out the largest innovation hub — Bakar Labs — at any U.S. university.

We’re thrilled to announce IGI–Bakar Labs. This new building will allow the IGI to continue expanding our impact in health and agricultural applications of #CRISPR, and will be shared with the Bakar Labs incubator for growing biotech companies. Learn more: news.berkeley.edu/2025/07/17/c...

Cytoplasmic control of spindle architecture Nature Cell Biology - Dense crowding of macromolecules in the cytoplasm is a fundamental property of cells. A study now identifies a pathway by which cytoplasmic dilution in differentiating neurons...

Thanks to the Heald lab @berkeleymcb.bsky.social for a very nice News & Views on our paper on cytoplasmic density & spindle architecture! 💚
rdcu.be/ewpa1

The $20 Million Bet on CRISPR to Cure Rare Childhood Diseases The center will bring custom gene-editing treatments to children.

MTI advisor and board member @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social just teamed up with the @chanzuckerberg.bsky.social to unveil UCSF’s Center for Pediatric CRISPR Cures. First up: 8 children receiving custom edits after Baby KJ’s landmark treatment.
Details: time.com/7300257/cent...
#CRISPR #RareDisease

GSA Medal recipient @nkwhiteman.bsky.social describes his scientific journey into the world of herbivorous insects and their host plants and how with genetic and genome editing tools led to findings in herbivore resistance in plants.

Read more: buff.ly/w1GFmwL

2/2🧵

Selective disruption of lipid peroxide homeostasis in intratumoral regulatory T cells by targeting FSP1 enhances cancer immunity A burgeoning approach to treat cancer is the pharmacological induction of ferroptotic cell death of tumor cells. However, the impact of disrupting anti-ferroptotic pathways in the broader tumor microe...

New preprint w/ the Dupage lab led by @jgcastillo.bsky.social! FSP1 KO in Tregs / Tcells promotes tumor suppression, highlighting the therapeutic value potential of FSP1 inhibition. New paradigm for targeting ferroptosis in immune system (not just in cancer cells). 🤩
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The expanding repertoire of ESCRT functions in cell biology and disease - Nature This Review examines recently gained insights into the roles of ESCRT complexes in viral infection, immunity, cancer and neurological disease.

The ESCRT complexes are a fascinating membrane cutting machine with roles in countless cell pathways, but they are also ubiquitous in disease and offer new opportunities as drug targets. See our new review with Alyssa Coyne, Marta Miączyńska, and Harald Stenmark at tinyurl.com/yex3trem

Structural insights into transcriptional regulation by the helicase RECQL5 - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Florez Ariza and Lue et al. use cryo-electron microscopy to investigate how the RECQL5 helicase regulates transcription. Their structural findings suggest that RECQL5 can modulate RNA polymerase II’s ...

Our work, co-led by @alfredo0712.bsky.social and @nlue8.bsky.social is out in @natsmb.nature.com Shout out to coauthors P.Grob, B. Kaeser, J.Fang, and S. Kassube for their contributions and thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions that led to the final work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am checking in to share this review in case you missed it. This is the first manuscript out of the lab, written together with postdoc @joshdcryoem.bsky.social, and I think it is an important starting point for designing in situ structural biology experiments

The $20 Million Bet on CRISPR to Cure Rare Childhood Diseases The center will bring custom gene-editing treatments to children.

Out now in TIME — @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social on IGI's new initiative, teaming up with the @chanzuckerberg.bsky.social to create a new center for pediatric #CRISPR cures! Read here: ow.ly/E5un50WnbCi

Amazing and multitalented postdoc @ongkaty.bsky.social taking time out from writing her new paper with this generous initiative. #genetics, #CRISPR, #drosophila, hallmarks of #cancer and more. For a great cause; support @flybase.bsky.social!

Repairing the heart: If zebrafish can do it, why not humans? - Berkeley News UC Berkeley and Caltech researchers tracked down genes that help zebrafish regenerate injured heart muscle. Can CRISPR activate this circuit in humans with heart disease?

Interesting new research from the Martik lab: 🧪
news.berkeley.edu/2025/07/09/r...

graph of progress of various clinical, described in text at the link

Hot off the presses: our reader-friendly 2025 overview of #CRISPR clinical trials! 🧬 Check it out here: ow.ly/mRPl50WneTS

Spindle morphology changes between #meiosis and #mitosis driven by CK2 regulation of the Ran pathway, say Helena Cantwell, Rebecca Heald and colleagues @berkeleymcb.bsky.social: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#CellCycle #CellDivision #Development #Cytoskeleton

BioPhySAL - First Salamanca International Advanced Biophysics and Structural Biology Course First Summer International Advanced Biophysics and Structural Biology Course. Eva Nogales - Carlos Bustamante.

So proud of the smashing success of the International Course in Biophysics co-organized with my @berkeleymcb.bsky.social colleague Carlos Bustamante and University of Salamanca @usaloficial.bsky.social
biophysal.org
Course ends with a Keynote from Nobel Laureate Richard Henderson🥇

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira named 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholar

Congrats to MCB's Filipa Rijo-Ferreira on being named a
@hhmi.org 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholar! 🎉👏
www.hhmi.org/programs/fre...

Kevin Wasko (left) and Honglue Shi in front of their gel imager, confirming that the SpRY Cas9 variant struggles to effectively open DNA

“What we’ve done here is uncover the secret sauce that makes typical #Cas9 — the original Nobel molecule — so efficient and precise." – Co-first author Honglue Shi of the @doudna-lab.bsky.social on his recent paper in Molecular Cell

Read here: innovativegenomics.org/uncovering-c...

Vertebrate retrotransposons are the future of gene therapy. But how do they insert their genes? 🔥🔥

Thrilled to share our new work now published with Kathy Collins, @nogaleslab.bsky.social @berkeleymcb.bsky.social where we investigate this with #cryoEM & biochemistry in 🧪 and cells! #RNAsky #TEsky

Jane Coffin Childs Fellows Aurora Alvarez-Buylla (Schepartz Lab), Grace Hibshman (Nogales Lab) and Heegwang Roh (Rapé Lab)

Congrats to MCB postdocs Aurora Alvarez-Buylla (Schepartz Lab), Grace Hibshman (Nogales Lab) and Heegwang Roh (Rapé Lab) for being selected as 2025 Jane Coffin Childs Fellows! 🎉👏 @jcchildsfund.bsky.social @nogaleslab.bsky.social @micharapelab.bsky.social www.jccfund.org/fellows/clas...

Yvette Fisher named 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholar

And another one for MCB's Yvette Fisher @yvetteefisher.bsky.social! 🔥Congrats on being named a
@hhmi.org 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholar! 🥂https://www.hhmi.org/programs/freeman-hrabowski-scholars/2025-scholars

Congrats to MCB's Yvette Fisher @yvetteefisher.bsky.social
on being named a 2025 McKnight Scholar! 👏🎉
www.mcknight.org/news-ideas/2...

Congratulations to Dirk Hockemeyer on his promotion to MCB Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology! 👏🎉
mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

Congratulations to Gloria Brar on her promotion to MCB Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology! 👏🎉
mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

Airyscan microscopy of chlorophyll fluorescence in Chlamy cells acclimated to diurnal low light or excess light taken in the daytime or the nighttime. The cells are outlined with a dotted white line, each containing a single cup-shaped chloroplast, which is outlined in green.

What do algae do after a long day of photosynthesis?

The Sabeeha Merchant lab & @sunnyjoydupuis.bsky.social tracked them day & night. These tiny powerhouses prep for stress in their sleep—findings that could reshape how we see global carbon cycling.

Read more: bit.ly/QB3_algae