berkeleyMCB

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

Self-renewal of neuronal mitochondria through asymmetric division Mitochondrial ATP production is essential for life. Mitochondrial function depends on the spatio-temporal coordination of nuclear and mitochondrial genome expression, yet how this coordination occurs ...

⚡️Mitochondria make ATP, the energy that powers life. But in neurons, with axons up to a meter long, how do these tiny power plants stay functional in the right places? We went looking. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Addition Tx does the math and emerges from stealth with $100M, biotech vets on exec team University of California spinout Addition Therapeutics has uncloaked, revealing “breakthrough” PRINT technology it hopes will fuel a new wave of genetic medicine. | University of California spinout Ad...

Addition Therapeutics, a spinout of QB3-Berkeley affiliate Kathleen Collins' lab, has emerged from stealth with $100M in funding from SR One, the Gates Foundation, and more. Its PRINT platform uses retrotransposon machinery to deliver precise gene therapy.
www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/addi...

2025 | Happy Holidays from berkeleyMCB! This is "2025 | Happy Holidays from berkeleyMCB!" by berkeleyMCB on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Happy Holidays from MCB! 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.
vimeo.com/1147759879?f...

Congrats to MCB's James Olzmann! 🎉👏 @olzmannlab.bsky.social

My wonderful lab members at our holiday party. I was quite nostalgic about celebrating together this year. But my misty eyes quickly dried when someone, who shall not be named, would not let me keep banana-grams during the White Elephant gift exchange!

Discovery of Non-Degradative Covalent Molecular Glues for Transcriptional Reprogramming Transcriptional reprogramming through induced proximity has emerged as a powerful strategy for modulating the expression of oncogenic and tumor-suppressive genes. Inspired by transcriptional reprogram...

Excited to highlight our latest bioRxiv led by grad student Zoe Duong and Qian Shao. We report a chemistry-centric, chemoproteomics-enabled strategy to discover non-degradative molecular glues for transcriptional rewiring.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Collage of professionals working with technology around the year 2025 highlighted in the center.

The first-ever personalized CRISPR medicine, genomics meets AI + automation, editing gut microbes for health + climate applications, field trials for climate-resistant crops — 2025 has been an exciting year for the IGI! Learn about these + more in our annual Impact Report: https://ow.ly/h2OA50XIAVV

New from IGI's @marsonlab.bsky.social and @juliacarnevale.bsky.social, with co-authors @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social, @j-eyquem.bsky.social, James Nuñez!

Schematic of how ER-EPG plasticity enables the bump of activity in EPGs to accurately track visual cues. As a fly makes a counter-clockwise turn (top to bottom) it will view visual cues (e.g. the sun) from a new angle and the EPG activity bump (red) will swing clockwise around the network by integrating self motion signals with these visual inputs. When the fly faces a different angle, distinct visual ER neurons are active. Plasticity forms a trough of weak synapses (large circles - strong synapses, small circles - weak synapses) that allow ER neurons with distinct visual tuning to move the EPG bump via disinhibition.

*First preprint from our lab* !!!!!
How does the brain learn to anchor its internal sense of direction to the outside world? 🧭
led by Mark Plitt @markplitt.bsky.social & Dan Turner-Evans, w/ Vivek Jayaraman:
“Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread ⬇️

The Portnoy lab outreach team with the outreach exhibits. Left to right: Mariya, Carissa, Talia, Berenise, Ted and Andrea.

Portnoy Lab microbiologists brought hands-on science to a local elementary school by creating a Microbe Circuit—sparking curiosity and inspiring future scientists. 🧪🦠

mcb.berkeley.edu/news-and-eve...

In vivo models bring FSP1 inhibitors to life - Nature Cell Biology FSP1 is a key suppressor of lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis, yet it is largely dispensable in standard cell culture models. Two new studies now show that FSP1 becomes essential for tumour growth in...

Happy to see our News & Views is out! We highlight two landmark papers demonstrating the potential for therapeutic targeting of FSP1 and #ferroptosis in in vivo cancer models. Beautiful work from @ubellackerlab.bsky.social, Thales Papagiannakopoulos, and colleagues. 🥳
www.nature.com/articles/s41...