QB3-Berkeley

Did the first animal look like a sponge or a comb jelly? The debate continues. - Berkeley News Two years ago, a novel analysis by UC Berkeley researchers pointed to comb jellies as the root of the animal tree of life. Another Berkeley group now says it’s sponges.

Which came first — the comb jelly or the sponge? The battle over the root of the animal tree of life rages on, with the latest research from QB3-Berkeley's Nicole King coming down on the side of the sponge. Read more from the UC Berkeley news team: news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/19/d...

Portrait of a smiling Bill Burkholder on a blue background with the QB3-Berkeley logo.

We are thrilled to welcome Bill Burkholder, science program director at #CZBiohubSF (@czbiohub.bsky.social) as our professional in residence this week! Learn how curiosity shaped his career journey in this fantastic Q&A: qb3.berkeley.edu/news/profess...

Researchers pioneer greener way to extract rare earth elements - Berkeley Engineering Sustainable biomining approach uses genetically engineered viruses

A team led by QB3-Berkeley affiliate Seung-Wuk Lee has engineered a harmless virus into a “smart sponge” to extract rare-earth elements from waste streams—no harsh chemicals, just biology. A huge win for cleaner tech and supply chains! 🔬🌱 bit.ly/3LQOHuA

Nature provides the answers - Berkeley Engineering Phillip Messersmith harnesses the natural world to engineer medical innovations

Nature has inspired many scientific breakthroughs—and for QB3-Berkeley's Phillip Messersmith, it’s a blueprint for healing. He and his team are creating bio-inspired glues and regenerative materials: Think surgical sealants that stretch, stick, and help tissues heal. 🔬💚 Read more: bit.ly/3XHwwKp

Testing the waters - Berkeley Engineering Researchers have found that stored drinking water is a key transmission pathway for E. coli

From the latest issue of Berkeley Engineering mag: Research by QB3-Berkeley affiliate Amy Pickering shows that stored drinking water is a major source of E. coli transmission in developing countries. Read more from @berkeleyengineer.bsky.social: engineering.berkeley.edu/news/2025/11...

In a new Nature study, Dr. @gabineiman.bsky.social et al. developed an in vitro screening method to predict transfection efficacy of LNP-mRNA complexes in the heart, validating it with #SmartSPIM imaging in whole mouse hearts. Check out the paper: bit.ly/444P0rT

@qb3-berkeley.bsky.social

Heart-on-a-chip may lead to new treatments for heart failure - Berkeley Engineering Model helps identify nanoparticles that can deliver mRNA directly into heart muscle cells

Using a heart-on-a-chip model, QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate Kevin Healy has helped to discover a lipid nanoparticle that can penetrate dense heart muscle and efficiently deliver a therapeutic cargo. More from @berkeleyengineer.bsky.social: engineering.berkeley.edu/news/2025/11...

National Academy of Medicine adds two from UC Berkeley to its ranks - Berkeley News The new members have worked on mobile phone microscopes and health disparities.

Congrats to QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate Daniel Fletcher, elected to the National Academy of Medicine for his work developing mobile phone-based microscopy and much more! Read about his honor from the UC Berkeley news team: news.berkeley.edu/2025/10/21/n...

At @dillinlab.bsky.social, Andrew Dillin's team explores how cells stay young — & why they fail with age. That research inspired UC Berkeley's CURED: a new center turning discoveries on mitochondria & stress response into therapies for rare diseases. Learn more: ls.berkeley.edu/news/andrew-...

Portrait of Lenny Teytelman smiling against a blue background.

In advance of his November visit, @protocolsio.bsky.social prez Lenny Teytelman (@lteytelman.bsky.social) spoke to Berkeley's Leah Keiser about his path to founding a startup acquired by @springernature.com. Read the interview:
qb3.berkeley.edu/news/profess...

John Clarke, UC Berkeley emeritus professor, awarded 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics - Berkeley News The Nobel Prize committee honored Clarke "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit." These circuits were forerunners of the qubits i...

QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate and emeritus professor of physics John Clarke has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum tunneling, a discovery that laid the foundation for today’s quantum computers. Read about his work: news.berkeley.edu/2025/10/07/j...

Berkeley microbiologist explains the wonder of viruses in 101 seconds - Berkeley News "I love efficiency, and viruses are masters at efficiency," says Professor Britt Glaunsinger in this 101 in 101 video.

To many, viruses are a scourge. To Britt Glaunsinger, @natureatcal.bsky.social/@berkeleymcb.bsky.social professor, they're a wonder. 🦠 She gives the 101 on these "masters at efficiency" in 101 seconds in a new @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social video feature: news.berkeley.edu/2025/10/02/b...

Can the 'good' bacteria in your mouth act as probiotic cavity fighters? - Berkeley News UC Berkeley's Wenjun Zhang is trying to understand how oral bacteria make biofilms, aka plaque, so she can distinguish the good from the bad — and tip the balance to prevent cavities.

Can “good” bacteria in your mouth fight cavities? New research from QB3-Berkeley's Wenjun Zhang has identified gene clusters that help oral microbes form biofilms, and she hopes to harness their power. Read more from UC Berkeley: news.berkeley.edu/2025/09/04/c...

Teng-Jui (Owen) Lin and Kylee Hillman sit on either side of a computer monitor showing colorful graphs.

Shining a light on misleading data! Grad students Owen Lin & Kylee Hillman in the Landry Lab have won an NINDS Early-Career Rigor Champions Prize for quantifying how many bio papers misuse data viz techniques. Read the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry story: chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/shining...

Thrilled to see QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate Iain Clark named among this year's Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research. He'll use his four-year grant to examine the genetic underpinnings of one of the most lethal and poorly understood forms of leukemia. ls.berkeley.edu/news/four-uc...

NSF has committed $18M more to C-GEM at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, directed by QB3-Berkeley's Alanna Schepartz. The center is tackling a "Holy Grail" problem: synthesizing truly sequence-defined chemical polymers. Read more from the College of Chemistry: chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/nsf-com...

Is the 'love hormone,' oxytocin, also the 'friendship hormone'? - Berkeley News A UC Berkeley study found that social prairie voles lacking the receptor for oxytocin are slow to form friendships and less aggressive toward unfamiliar peers. This suggests a role for oxytocin in bot...

Is oxytocin just the “love hormone"? New research co-authored by QB3-Berkeley's Markita Landry suggests it might also be a factor in forming friendships. Read the full story from the @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social news team: news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/11/i...

Allon Wagner stands with team of four students on staircase in Stanley Hall on UC Berkeley campus.

Faculty focus on: Allon Wagner! A computer scientist by training, he works with his team to investigate how immune cell metabolism is disrupted in immune-related diseases.

Read our interview: qb3.berkeley.edu/news/faculty...

Jennifer Doudna is named 2026 Priestley Medalist The award recognizes the biochemist for discoveries on ribozyme function and CRISPR gene editing, and international science leadership

Jennifer Doudna has been named the 2026 Priestley Medalist by @acs.org for her pioneering work on CRISPR and global science leadership.

A well-deserved honor! Her discoveries have revolutionized gene editing and transformed the future of medicine. cen.acs.org/people/award...

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

Headshot of Usha Lingappa

Congratulations to Usha Lingappa for receiving a 2025 Branco Weiss Fellow!

The fellowship will support Usha's research on algal contributions to soil carbon cycling as she continues her work as a postdoc in Sabeeha Merchant's lab in @natureatcal.bsky.social‬.

Read more: bit.ly/lingappa-congrats

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

Nicolas Altemose (left) celebrating with PhD student, Danilo Dubocanin (right)

QB3-Berkeley alum spotlight: Nicolas Altemose (@naltemose.bsky.social), now a Stanford professor and CZ Biohub Investigator, shares how his time in the Streets lab shaped his research journey—from developing new tech to mentoring the next generation.

📖 Full interview here: bit.ly/AltemoseQB3

🧬 Announcing the 2025 Innovator Awardees!
Proud to support 6 researchers with $90K + resources.

🔬Lareau: CRISPR for retinitis pigmentosa
🧪Hurley: Cancer inhibitors
✨Sherriff & Olzmann: Molecular glues
🥼Welch: Sleeping sickness
🧫Isacoff: Fast-acting antidepressants

Advancing innovation at Berkeley

Check my article contribution for @qb3-berkeley.bsky.social about the Chichancanab pupfish radiation! 🐟😍

A group of researchers lies down on a dock to look for pupfishes in one of the private lagoons around Tulum, México.

Dive into our latest research story, "How my first fish expedition found a species on the brink of extinction."

Read the story from @fishfena.bsky.social, a postdoc in @fishspeciation.bsky.social's lab: bit.ly/QB3-fish 🐟

Thrilled to share that my first first-author paper is officially out as a PNAS direct submission! In this study, we uncovered the mechanism diving polycistronic expression in green algae! Come check it out below:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A researcher in a blue lab coat holds up a beaker with yellow liquid in it.

This month's interview is with Marco Dueñas! Marco is a PhD candidate in Sabeeha Merchant’s lab in @berkeleymcb.bsky.social and @natureatcal.bsky.social.

He chats with us about his recent paper in @pnas.org, overcoming research challenges, and more.

Read the story: bit.ly/m-duenas

The Andreas Stahl lab members gathered around a table.

This month's interview is with @natureatcal.bsky.social Prof. Andreas Stahl: "The biggest inspiration comes from the excitement of discovery. Few things are more rewarding than forming a bold hypothesis & seeing it hold true—or discovering something unexpected."

Read more: bit.ly/Andreas-Stahl-QB3

Big Give 2025 Be the Light this Big Give, March 13, 2025

It's #CalBigGive — UC Berkeley's annual day of giving! A gift to QB3-Berkeley today supports essential infrastructure like our core research facilities.

Give to QB3-Berkeley: bit.ly/Give2QB3-Berkeley

And check out one of our core facilities, Cal-Cryo: bit.ly/Cal-Cryo