People

The Arkin laboratory for systems and synthetic biology seeks to uncover the evolutionary design principles of cellular networks and populations and to exploit them for applications. To do so they are developing a framework to effectively combine comparative functional genomics, quantitative measurement of cellular dynamics, biophysical modeling of cellular networks, and cellular circuit design to ultimately facilitate applications in health, the environment, and the circular bioeconomy on earth and in space. We lead three major projects: The Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies (ENIGMA) program which seek to advance a predictive, mechanistic understanding of microbial biology and the impact of microbial communities on their ecosystems; The DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase) is a software and data science platform designed to meet the grand challenge of transparent, reusable, reproducible systems biology: predicting and designing biological function; and the Center for Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES) which aims to create a high efficiency sustainable and regenerable biomanufacturing platform for functional food, pharmaceuticals and materials for prolonged deep space missions. They also work on 'living' therapies such as phage to treat antimicrobial resistant microbes or creation of microbial probiotics that sense and protect against respiratory infection.

Alan Hubbard is currently Head of Biostatistics, co-director of the Center of Targeted Learning, and head of the computational biology core of the SuperFund Center at UC Berkeley (NIH), as well as a consulting statistician on several federally funded and foundation projects. He has worked as well on projects ranging from molecular biology of aging, epidemiology, and infectious disease modeling, but most of his work has focused on semi-parametric estimation in high-dimensional data. His current methods-research focuses on precision medicine, variable importance, statistical inference for data-adaptive parameters, and statistical software implementing targeted learning methods. He is currently working in several areas of applied research, including early childhood development in developing countries, environmental genomics, and comparative effectiveness research. He has most recently concentrated on using complex patient data for better prediction for acute trauma patients.

Amy E. Herr is the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor in the Department of Bioengineering. A major focus of the Herr lab is engineering innovation for analysis of complex biological systems -- as is required to address questions important to both fundamental biological systems and applied clinical research. Her lab employs a combination of approaches drawn from chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering with strong foundations in biology, materials science, and analytical chemistry. In essence, the Herr Lab strives to advance the "mathematization" of biology & medicine. Their research projects span understanding fundamental transport to materials design to applications in life sciences tools and diagnostics.

Arthur L. Reingold, MD, is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Reingold has worked for over forty years on the prevention and control of infectious diseases both at the national level, including eight years at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as with numerous low income countries around the world. He has directed or co-directed the CDC-funded California Emerging Infections Program since its inception in 1994. His research interests include vaccine-preventable diseases; respiratory infections, including influenza; bacterial meningitis; disease surveillance; and outbreak detection and response. He has published almost 400 original research papers on these subjects and teaches a wide variety of courses on related topics at the University of California, Berkeley and at numerous other universities around the world. Among other honors, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

The Winoto lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms of cell death in the immune system in the context of cancer and autoimmune diseases. They use a combination of biochemical, molecular biological and mouse transgenic/gene targeting approaches in studies. The long-term goal of the Winoto lab is to understand the signal transduction pathways related to cell death in the immune system.

Ayesha Mahmud is a demographer, who is broadly interested in the interplay between human population changes, environmental factors, and infectious disease dynamics. Her research draws on theory and methods from demography and disease ecology, to answer questions such as - why do outbreaks occur at certain times of the year? How and why does the mortality burden of infectious diseases vary over time? How do population travel patterns drive the spatial dynamics of outbreaks? How will global environmental and demographic changes alter the landscape of infectious disease burden in the future? She uses statistical methods and biologically mechanistic models to answer these questions in the context of multiple diseases in countries in Asia, Africa, and Central America, using data from disease surveillance systems, hospital databases, climate models, human mobility data, and population surveys and censuses. Prior to coming to Berkeley, she was a Rockefeller Foundation Planetary Health Fellow at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. in Demography from Princeton University in 2017.

Dr. Babak Javid is an infectious diseases physician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Division of Experimental Medicine at UCSF. He went to medical school at the University of Cambridge and, after residency in general (internal) medicine, returned to Cambridge to study for a PhD in immunobiology as an MRC training fellow in the lab of Paul Lehner. There, he studied the cross-presentation of heat-shock protein/peptide complexes by human dendritic cells to human cytotoxic lymphocytes. Following a fellowship in infectious diseases, Dr. Javid became fascinated by the clinical and scientific aspects of tuberculosis. He went to Boston as an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow to work on mycobacterial genetics with Eric Rubin at Harvard. It was at Harvard that Dr. Javid first discovered that the protein synthesis apparatus of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is rather different from the "standard" E. coli model and, in particular, that mycobacteria have extremely high but specific translational error rates (mistranslation). He started his independent research career in 2011 at Tsinghua University in Beijing and joined the faculty at UCSF in July 2020. In addition to the lab's research focus, Dr. Javid has a keen interest in mentorship and bringing together diverse researchers to tackle the global challenge of tuberculosis. With regards to the latter role, he is Associate Director (Basic Research) of the UCSF Center for Tuberculosis and Co-PI of the Basic Science Core of the UC-TRAC (Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center) -- one of six national Centers of Excellence for TB Research. Outside of the lab, Dr. Javid enjoys learning to cook, engaging in Baha'i activities, watching movies (trashy Sci-Fi is always welcome!), and spending time with his family.

Bernhard E. Boser received the Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1984 and the M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1985 and 1988. From 1988 he was a Member of Technical Staff in the Adaptive Systems Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1992 he joined the faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley where he also serves as a co-Director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center and the UC Berkeley Swarm Lab. Dr. Boser's research is in the area of analog and mixed signal circuits, with special emphasis on sensor and actuator interfaces. He and his co-workers accomplishments include differential capacitive readout techniques for MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes, now used in the majority of commercial inertial sensors. The pioneering work on sigma-delta analog-digital converters, ultra-low power successive approximation converters, and digitally assisted analog circuits has stimulated research and products in mixed-signal integrated circuits. His paper “Training algorithm for optimal margin classifiers” published in 1992 by the ACM Workshop on Computational Learning Theory is the first description of the Support-Vector Algorithm, SVM, a classification technique that has become widely used in applications ranging from financial prediction to bioinformatics and data-analytics. In 2004 Dr. Boser co-founded SiTime, a fabless mixed signal semiconductor company that offers MEMS-based silicon timing solutions replacing legacy quartz products. With 85% market share and over 35 million devices shipped, SiTime is the leader in this field and driving the $5 Billion timing market’s transition to silicon-based solutions. In 2005/06, Dr. Boser served as Chief Scientist and designed the company’s first MEMS oscillator circuit. He has served on the program committees of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the Transducers Conference, the VLSI Symposium, and the Solid-State Sensor and Actuator Workshop. He has served the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Chair of the Publications Committee, and in 2010 and 2011 was its President. In 2005/06 he was a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Boser is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Brady Cress leads research on microbiome editing technologies at the IGI. As part of the Berkeley Initiative for Optimized Microbiome Editing (BIOME) at the IGI, research in his lab focuses on engineering microbial communities to address global challenges associated with human health and climate change. To accomplish this, he is developing CRISPR genome editing and DNA delivery technologies that are specialized for targeted manipulation of microorganisms in the context of their natural communities, expanding beyond the paradigm of performing genetics exclusively on isolated species. These technological platforms aim to efficiently alter and augment microbial community functions to produce positive health and environmental outcomes. Cress completed an NIH Kirschstein-NRSA (F32) Postdoctoral Fellowship with Jennifer Doudna, where he and colleagues developed CRISPR-associated transposases for species- and site-specific genome editing within microbial communities.

Research in the Staskawicz laboratory is focused on elucidating the molecular basis of plant innate immunity from the perspective of both the pathogen and the host. They have emphasized the identification and characterization of bacterial effector proteins from both Pseudomonas syringae and Xanthomonas spp. with respect to the molecular events that control delivery of effector proteins to host and their sites of action within the plant host. They have studied the dual phenotype of bacterial effectors with regards to both virulence and their ability to trigger effector-mediated immunity when they are recognized by their cognate NB-LRR plant innate immune receptors. The laboratory studies many aspects of plant innate immunity and employs cutting edge methods to answer many of the pressing questions in the field that pertain to effector recognition and NB-LRR immune receptor activation. Furthermore, they have now set out to apply basic discoveries in the field of molecular plant pathology to engineer durable resistance in agronomic crop species.

Britt Glaunsinger is a molecular virologist whose research investigates how virus–host interactions influence gene expression during infection. She is best known for her work on herpesviruses, revealing how viral proteins manipulate cellular RNA synthesis and fate. Glaunsinger’s lab integrates molecular biology, genomics, and cell biology to study how viruses co-opt host machinery and how cells respond to pathogenic stress. She is Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She holds the Class of 1963 Endowed Chair for excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Dr. Bryan Greenhouse’s research is focused on developing new tools to better measure malaria transmission and to determine how some people can be infected with malaria parasites without becoming sick. His team studies malaria in its natural environment, applying novel laboratory and analytical methods to high-quality field studies. Most of his work takes place in malaria-endemic regions, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. His current projects center on understanding the development of naturally acquired immunity, creating novel antibody-based tools to measure malaria exposure and immunologic protection, improving diagnostics, and using parasite genetics and spatial data to understand parasite transmission and evolution. Dr. Greenhouse is dedicated to teaching and mentoring and is coordinating efforts to democratize access to malaria genomics by expanding access to analytics and creating training resources. His group is also committed to building capacity for laboratory genomics and data analysis and is actively collaborating with several partners to advance these efforts. Dr. Greenhouse’s lab is based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where he co-leads the UCSF EPPIcenter.

Carlos Bustamante uses novel methods of single-molecule visualization, such as scanning force microscopy, to study the structure and function of nucleoprotein assemblies. His laboratory is developing methods of single-molecule manipulation, such as optical tweezers, to characterize the elasticity of DNA, to induce the mechanical unfolding of individual protein molecules, and to investigate the machine-like behavior of molecular motors. Bustamante’s laboratory was the first to mechanically manipulate and stretch a single molecule of DNA using optical tweezers to measure its elastic properties, it was essential to his studies of molecular machines such as RNA polymerase and ribosomes. Carlos Bustamante is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and Biophysicist Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bustamante studied medicine in Peru at National University of San Marcos before discovering his true interest in biochemistry. He received his BSc from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, his MSc in biochemistry from National University of San Marcos in Lima, and his PhD in biophysics from UC Berkeley, where he studied with Ignacio Tinoco, Jr.

Dr. Charles Whittaker is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Berkeley Public Health, where he directs the Pandemic and Epidemic Threat Analytics Lab (PETAL). His research focuses on the dynamics, detectability and control of pathogens with pandemic potential, and uses state-of-the-art analytical approaches spanning viral phylodynamics, epidemiological modelling and machine learning to uncover new insights into how pathogens spread through populations and to enhance preparedness and response strategies for public health emergencies. Central to this work is a focus on equity, addressing how the inequitable distribution of resources hinders effective outbreak response, and developing solutions to ensure everyone is protected from pandemic threats. Current research topics include projects on novel pathogen surveillance, the drivers of zoonotic spillover, and next-generation medical countermeasures such as broad-spectrum vaccines. This work is carried out in collaboration with scientists and public health professionals from Angola, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Panama, Singapore, the UK, and the USA, and organizations including CEPI and the WHO. He is a founding member of the Machine Learning and Global Health Network and also a Field Epidemiologist—previously with the WHO (including deployment to the 2018–2020 North Kivu Ebola outbreak), and more recently with the UK’s Public Health Rapid Support Team.

Charlotte D. Smith is a faculty member of the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, and a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara – Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO). Her research interests include the microbial ecology and control of waterborne pathogens, and using geospatial statistics to explore the pathway from environmental exposures, including contaminated water, to acute and chronic diseases (e.g., diarrheal and/or kidney disease). Current community-based participatory research in Guadalajara focuses on access to water as a human right under UN Resolution 64-292. Dr. Smith teaches GIS and Spatial Analysis for Health Equity , and Applied GIS for Public Health. She enjoys mentoring graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Smith holds a BS in Microbiology from the University of Michigan, an MAS in Spatial Analysis from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MA in Community Health from the City University of New York, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management – Academic Network of the Americas, GIS Latin America, and the Organization of American States – Pan American Institute for Geography and History. She received the John Leal Public Health Award in 2022, the Jorge Matute Remus Award in 2019, and the Zak Sabry Mentorship Award in 2016.

Daniel Fletcher is the Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems and a professor of Bioengineering. He joined the bioengineering faculty in 2002 and advanced from Associate Professor to Professor in mid 2010. He is also currently serving as Vice Chair for Bioengineering. His research interests include optical and force microscopy, microfabrication, mechanical properties of cells. The Fletcher Lab combines bioengineering, biophysics, and molecular biology to understand how cells move, communicate, and become diseased. The lab asks fundamental questions about how cells are assembled from their molecular components, as well as applied questions about how those components can be detected or modified to fight disease. This work often involves developing new experimental methods, microscopy techniques, and microfabricated tools. The group also uses theory and computation to guide experimental design and interpret data. Its research in mechanobiology, immunoengineering, and disease diagnostics is ultimately aimed at understanding how biological systems function at a mechanistic level in order to develop new strategies to improve health.

Daniel Nomura is a Professor of Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology in the Division of Molecular Therapeutics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Co-Director of the Molecular Therapeutics Initiative and an Investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF. Since 2017, he has been the Director of the Novartis-Berkeley Translational Chemical Biology Institute focused on using chemoproteomic platforms to tackle the undruggable proteome. He is Co-Founder of Frontier Medicines, a start-up company focused on using chemoproteomics and machine learning approaches to tackle the undruggable proteome. He is also a co-founder of Zenith Therapeutics focused on targeted protein degradation of undruggable targets. He is on the Scientific Advisory Boards for Frontier Medicines, Zenith, Photys Therapeutics, Apertor Pharma, Oerth Bio, Axiom Therapeutics, Ten30 Biosciences, and Deciphera. Nomura is also on the scientific advisory committees of The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He is also an Investment Advisory Partner at a16z Bio+Health, an Investment Advisory Board member at Droia Ventures, and an iPartner with The Column Group. In 2025, Nomura also became the Editor-in-Chief for Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He earned his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2003 and Ph.D. in Molecular Toxicology in 2008 at UC Berkeley with Professor John Casida and was a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps Research with Professor Benjamin F. Cravatt before returning to Berkeley as a faculty member in 2011. Among his honors are the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award, Searle Scholar, and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE award.

Daniel A. Portnoy is a microbiologist and immunologist who studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of host–pathogen interactions. He is best known for groundbreaking research on Listeria monocytogenes, which revealed how intracellular pathogens invade, replicate, and evade immune defenses. His lab pioneered genetic and molecular approaches to study innate immunity, including the discovery of pathways that activate host cell defenses against bacterial infection. Portnoy’s work has had major implications for understanding bacterial pathogenesis, inflammation, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics. His research integrates microbial genetics, immunology, and cell biology to dissect how pathogens subvert host processes. Portnoy is a Professor of Plant & Microbial Biology and Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. His research has been published in Science, Nature, and Cell. He has received awards such as the NIH MERIT Award and has trained numerous graduate students and postdocs who lead labs around the world. His expertise spans microbiology, immunology, and host–pathogen interactions.

Research in the Graves group focuses on the fundamentals and applications of weakly to partially ionized gases, or plasmas, to technological problems, primarily in the microelectronics industry. These plasmas operate at relatively low gas temperatures - around room temperature - and are therefore quite different from the hot, usually strongly magnetized plasmas in stars or that are used in thermonuclear fusion and weapons applications. The key problems in this field are related to the coupling of the chemically reactive neutral gas and electrons and ions that make up the plasma. This is especially true at surfaces exposed to the plasma. Indeed the primary applications of interest to the Graves group are related to interactions between the plasma and its bounding surfaces.

David I. Levine is a professor of business administration at Berkeley Haas and serves as chair of the Economic Analysis & Policy Group. Levine’s research focuses on understanding and overcoming barriers to improving health in poor nations. This research has examined both how to increase demand for health-promoting goods such as safer cookstoves and water filters, and how to change health-related behaviors such as handwashing with soap. He has also written extensively on organizational learning (and failures to learn).

Dr. Raulet's laboratory is dedicated to understanding recognition by natural killer cells and T cells, and is developing approaches to mobilize NK cells therapeutically against cancer. He is a world expert in cancer immunology and NK cell biology. His laboratory has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of both recognition by NK cells and immunoregulation of these important cytotoxic cells, in both cancer and viral infections. His findings have led to new understanding of requirements for pre-activating the cells, their modes of inhibition and processes of desensitization that occur in tumors. These findings, in turn, have enabled the development of new approaches to pre-activate NK cells for maximal NK killing of tumor cells, methods to block inhibition of NK cells, and approaches to reverse desensitization of NK cells, all of which have potential for immunotherapy of cancer. He has demonstrated efficacy of several of these approaches in various models of cancer in mice and pursues translation of these findings for treatments of human cancer.

David Schaffer is the Hubbard Howe Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and he also serves as the Director of QB3 and the Director of the Bakar Labs, Bakar Bio Labs, Bakar Climate Labs, and the Bakar Fellows Program. He received a B.S. from Stanford University in 1993 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1998, both in chemical engineering. He then conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies before joining Berkeley in 1999. There, he applies engineering principles to optimize gene and stem cell therapies, work that includes developing the concept of applying directed evolution to engineer targeted and efficient viral gene therapy vectors as well as new technologies to investigate and control stem cell fate decisions. He has published >250 papers, has advised >90 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, is an inventor on >50 patents, and developed technologies that are being used in 9 human clinical trials. In addition, he has co-founded seven companies from his lab, including 4D Molecular Therapeutics (NASDAQ FDMT), Ignite Immunotherapies (acquired by Pfizer) and Rewrite (acquired by Intellia). Finally, he has received recognitions including the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Inventors, Andreas Acrivos Professional Progress Award, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award, the American Chemical Society Marvin Johnson Award, and the Biomedical Engineering Society Rita Shaffer Young Investigator Award.

Dorian Liepmann joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty in 1992 and moved to the newly created Bioengineering Department in 1998. He served as the second Chair from 2004 - 2009 and is currently serving as Vice Chair for the professional masters programs in bioengineering. His research is focused on the development of novel approaches for improved health care including MEMS-based biosensors and drug delivery systems. He is an authority on bio-MEMS and micromachines related to fluid mechanics.

Ellen Robey is a Professor of Immunology and Molecular Medicine. The Robey Lab is interested in how signaling pathways control cell fate decisions. By using T cell development and immune responses in the mouse as model systems, they can take advantage of the powerful genetic approaches available in the mouse, while learning about a mammalian immune system that is very close to our own. The lab also makes extensive use of 2-photon imaging approaches to observe and analyze T cell behavior in real-time in situ.

Dr. Eva Harris is a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Director of the Center for Global Public Health, and Chair of the Infectious Diseases and Immunity Graduate Group in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. She has developed a multidisciplinary approach to study the molecular virology, pathogenesis, immunology, epidemiology, diagnostics, clinical aspects and control of dengue, Zika and chikungunya, the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral diseases in humans. Her work addresses immune correlates of protection and pathogenesis, viral and host factors that modulate disease severity, and virus replication and evolution, using in vitro approaches, animal models, and research involving human populations. One major focus is on studies of arboviral disease in humans, including antibody and B cell responses and correlates of protection, systems immunology profiling of the innate response, diagnostics and seroprevalence studies, and viral evolution, fitness, and intrahost diversity. Another focus is viral pathogenesis, specifically the role of flavivirus NS1 protein in endothelial permeability, vascular leak, and viral dissemination. Recently, she extended this approach to new studies on COVID-19 pathogenesis, therapeutics, epidemiology and seroprevalence both locally and internationally. Her international work focuses on laboratory-based and epidemiological studies of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, as well as influenza and COVID-19, in endemic Latin American countries, particularly in Nicaragua through close collaborations for over 30 years. Ongoing projects in Nicaragua include clinical and biological studies of severe dengue, a pediatric cohort study and household transmission studies of dengue, Zika, chikungunya in Managua. Dr. Harris has published over 330 peer-reviewed articles, as well as a book on her international scientific work. In 1997, she received a MacArthur Award for work over the previous ten years developing programs to build scientific capacity in developing countries to address public health and infectious disease issues. This enabled her to found a non-profit organization in 1998, Sustainable Sciences Institute (SSI), with offices in San Francisco and Nicaragua to continue and expand this work worldwide.

Dr. Raphael is a family physician and clinician investigator in the Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Family & Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research interest focuses on the social and environmental drivers of community-onset drug-resistant bacterial infections. She studies one of the most common infections of women—urinary tract infections (UTI)--using infectious disease, social, and spatial epidemiology methods. Her other projects include studying disease burden in immigrant populations and social inequities associated with COVID-19 infections. She has a primary care practice at the Family Health Center, San Francisco General Hospital.

Fenyong Liu was born and raised in Guangzhou, China during the Cultural Revolution. Early on in life he knew that he wanted to pursue science as his career, learning English during junior high school and having influential teachers while attending high school in Guangzhou. After passing the university entrance examinations, Liu matriculated at the prestigious University of Science and Technology of China. Initially he decided to pursue physics, but then transferred to the biology program after two years of study. Encouraged by his professors, Liu decided to attend graduate school in the United States at the University of Chicago, briefly spending time in the Medical School before transferring into the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology program, where he worked with Richard Roller and Bernard Roizman. While his initial research focused on the biochemistry of viral DNA replication, Liu focused in the last years of his doctoral study on the genetics of the herpes virus capsid protein; his research resulted in a patent and created intense interest from the pharmaceutical industry. He followed up his graduate research with postdoctoral positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute and Yale University, where he worked with Sidney Altman on the inhibition of antiviral gene expression. His current research in molecular biology and virology has focused on cytomegalovirus infection.

Greg Barton's training and expertise are in the areas of immunology, microbiology, cell biology, and mouse genetics. Research in his lab focuses on microbial detection by the innate immune system and how innate immunity links to adaptive immunity. As a graduate student in Alexander Rudensky’s lab he developed new transgenic mouse strains to address the importance of MHC-bound self-peptides in T cell selection (Barton and Rudensky Science 1999; Barton et al PNAS 2002). Through this training he gained expertise in cellular immunology, T cell biology, and antigen presentation. For his postdoctoral training he worked in Ruslan Medzhitov’s lab, where his work focused on innate immunity. He carried out the first studies demonstrating the importance of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in controlling induction of adaptive immunity (Schnare*, Barton* et al Nature Immunology 2001). He also began studying how TLRs with specificity for nucleic acids avoid responses to self DNA and RNA (Barton et al Nature Immunology 2006). Both of these topics continue to interest him and his group at Berkeley. Professor Barton's lab is known for, among other things, its discoveries of new mechanisms regulating self versus non-self discrimination by TLRs. His research team showed that nucleic acid sensing TLRs require ectodomain processing, which reinforces compartmentalized ligand recognition (Ewald et al Nature 2008; Ewald et al JEM 2011; Mouchess et al Immunity 2011). His group has also characterized key aspects of TLR trafficking which can have profound impacts on receptor function (Lee et al eLIFE 2013). Another area of study focuses on host-microbe interactions, where the lab's work has uncovered key principles regulating interactions with pathogens (Arpaia et al Cell 2011; Sivick et al Cell Host Microbe 2014) and with the microbiota (Koch et al Cell 2016; Ansaldo et al Science 2019). Professor Barton's ongoing work continues to explore mechanisms of self versus non-self discrimination, host-microbe interactions, and the mechanisms by which innate immunity regulates adaptive immunity.

The Holmes Lab brings techniques from machine learning, statistical linguistics, phylogenetics, and web development to bear on the interpretation and analysis of genomic data. Particular areas of interest include the development of basecalling and analysis software for nanopore sequencing; phylogenetic reconstruction using Bayesian approaches; the use of deep learning to predict and design protein structures; and the development of modern JavaScript user interfaces, backed by fast indexing and in-browser AI, to maximize the impact of genome sequences and annotations.

The interplay between proteins and membrane lipids is central to almost every aspect of cell biology. The Hurley laboratory is interested in fundamental questions of how the interactions between proteins and membranes determine cell and organelle shape and the evolution of shape over time, how protein-membrane interactions turn on and off the signals that control essential cell processes, and how pathogens such as HIV-1 subvert and co-opt these interactions. The lab philosophy is to use a battery of powerful approaches to uncover molecular mechanism. This might mean cryoelectron microscopy, x-ray crystallography, single molecule spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, biochemical reconstitution, or live-cell imaging. Training in the Hurley lab entails both a buy-in to our interdisciplinary approach and mastery of at least two different major technical disciplines. The lab culture combines rigorous critical thinking and a willingness to tackle hard problems, with a climate of cooperation, inclusion, trust and service to our communities.

The Cate Lab explores how genes are put into action by translation. Translation is the universal process of protein synthesis, in which the ribosome translates the four-letter genetic code in messenger RNA into the twenty-letter code of proteins. The lab also works on strategies for making new sequence defined polymers using engineered ribosomes.

Jay Keasling is a pioneer in engineering microbes and metabolism. During the early 2000s, Jay led a UC Berkeley research team to use engineered yeast to synthetically produce artemisinin, the powerful anti-malarial drug. Researchers at the Keasling Lab are now using the same technology to produce other pharmaceuticals, commodity chemicals, and cellulosic biofuels.

J. Keith Gilless joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, as a professor of forest economics in 1983, and is a member of the faculty of both the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He served as Dean of Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources from 2007 to 2018, and retired from active professorial status in 2020. He is currently on recall serving as the Interim Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria and continues to serve the College as Co-Director of its Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program. Gilless currently serves in the Academic Senate as the Co-Chair of Berkeley's Committee on Faculty Welfare, as a member of Berkeley's Divisional Council, and as a member of the Systemwide Health Care Task Force, and previously in a variety of roles, including as Secretary of the Berkeley Division. He also served the campus as as President of the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Faculty Club from 2023-2025. Off campus, Gilless served from 2013 to 2024 as Chair of the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, and as the founding Co-Chair of the Board's Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation from 2019-2024. Under his leadership, the Board has engaged in substantive revisions to the portions of the California Public Regulatory Code dealing with protection of watercourses, fire safety-related land use planning, non-industrial forest management plans, etc., and promulgated emergency rules to allow the public to quickly address with problems such as tree mortality resulting from drought and fire. Gilless also served for two terms on the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Research Advisory Council. Gilless research encompasses structure survival in large urban-wildland conflagrations, simulation modeling of fire behavior and initial attack on wildland fire, effects of climate change on fire management, public engagement in the development of Community Wildfire Protection Plans, natural hazards impacts and planning, the economic impacts of changes in USFS harvest levels, competition for woody biomass between the paper and biofuels sectors, long-term forecasting of prices and regional growth in the pulp and paper sector, and forest harvest scheduling. He is the co-author of two textbooks on forest resource management and economics.

Dr. Joel Ernst’s lab focuses on immunity to tuberculosis (TB) with the goal of informing the rational design and development of new TB vaccines. The group conducts basic studies on mechanisms of immunity and immune evasion in TB, using mouse models. In addition, the lab investigates human immunity to TB and has discovered that, unlike pathogens that use antigenic variation to evade immunity and establish persistent infection, the human T cell antigens and epitopes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are highly conserved—even among strains that diverged from a common ancestor thousands of years ago. More recently, the team has identified rare M. tuberculosis antigens that show evidence of diversifying selection and has begun studies to test the hypothesis that T cell responses to these variable antigens are associated with superior protective immunity compared to responses targeting conserved antigens. Dr. Ernst’s work on human immunity to TB spans multiple continents and involves numerous collaborators at UCSF as well as partner institutions across the United States and internationally.

John M. Colford Jr. is a Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He trained at Johns Hopkins (MD); Stanford (Chief Medical Resident); UCSF (residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in ID and HIV/AIDS); and UC Berkeley (Epi PhD). He has served as the Principal Investigator for numerous randomized field trials and observational studies evaluating the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in India, Bolivia, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico and the United States. He teaches courses each year at UC Berkeley on Epidemiologic Methods, the Design of Randomized Controlled Trials, and on Impact Evaluation for Health Professionals. He is an attending physician in Infectious Diseases at the UCSF/VA Medical Center in San Francisco.

The J. Taylor Lab studies the pattern and process of fungal evolution. They started by studying the pattern of evolution in terms of species and populations and now have begun to study the process. Their long term goal is to make fungi the best models for evolutionary biology. They focus on the key evolutionary event that forms the tree of life: speciation. Recently they have documented species divergences, compared phylogenetic and biological methods of species recognition, addressed the timing of species divergence, and evaluated selection acting on potentially adaptive genes. Now, they are using genetics and genomics to find genes that maintain species and facilitate adaptation

Joseph Lewnard is an associate professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the UC Berkeley. He studies the transmission dynamics of infectious disease agents and the effectiveness of interventions such as vaccination. He uses mathematical and statistical modeling and collaborates closely with investigators leading field studies and disease surveillance. Much of his work centers around the impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines against disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in both high- and low-income settings. Additional projects address the impact of existing pediatric vaccines, and those in development, against antibiotic use and resistance.

Dr. Julia Schaletzky is the Executive Director of the Molecular Therapeutics Initiative and the founder of the Drug Discovery Center at UC Berkeley. Originally from Germany, she trained as a Biochemist at Bayreuth University and completed her diploma thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Francis Barr at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. Dr. Schaletzky then went abroad to obtain her PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Tom Rapoport at Harvard Medical School/HHMI. Interested in applied science, Dr. Schaletzky joined a biotechnology company, Cytokinetics. There, she developed first-in-class therapies for heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders, with several molecules in late-stage clinical trials or FDA approved. Dr. Schaletzky and her team discovered the starting points for first-in-class HCM drug mavacamten (Camzyos®) and aficamten, making treatment of a previously intractable disease possible. In her role at UC Berkeley, she focuses on interdisciplinary approaches and public/private partnership for the discovery and development of new therapies and tools for unmet medical needs, on translational science and entrepreneurship. Dr. Schaletzky is also a Professor of Molecular Therapeutics (Adj.) and a lecturer at the Haas School of Business, teaching Bioentrepreneurship, Bioethics, and Access to Medicines. She has received NIH-funded grants to support underrepresented minorities and women in STEM in the U.S. and ran a program in Uganda to build local research capacity in her previous role at the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases. Dr. Schaletzky is broadly interested in drug discovery, development and regulation, bioethics, the philosophy and history of science, and the governance of processes that determine access to care.

With over nearly four decades as a public health profession, Julia Walsh has extensive experience in evaluating cost-effectiveness of technologies and interventions for decreasing neonatal, infant, child and maternal health such as universal health insurance, vaccines, social franchise systems, and mobile phone apps. She has conducted research in more than 20 poor and middle income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Her research focuses on developing and testing innovative public and private sector solutions to improve health among the poorest population and promoting the widespread market penetration of evidence-based health interventions. She has conducted an analysis of the market feasibility, costs, and cost-effectiveness of the new method of fortification of rice with multivitamins in Columbia and India and a cost effectiveness of improvements in health information systems to enhance information based decision-making in poor countries. Julia also has considerable experience with many international agencies as a consultant or expert advisor. She has spent much of her academic career preparing the next generation of global public health professionals. More recently, she has linked the digital world with her efforts in the medical community and is a founder of Emmunify, a non-profit started with the goal to use technology to connect individuals in low income areas who need vaccinations with those who can supply and provide them.

Justin Remais is Professor and Chair of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. An engineer by training, Prof. Remais’ research uses statistical, mathematical, and computational approaches to study the impact of environmental change on the dynamics of infectious disease transmission. He leads a cluster of studies examining the spread of West Nile virus, TB, leptospirosis, schistosomiasis, coccidioidomycosis, and enteric infections as they respond to rapid urbanization, industrialization, migration, changes in water resources, and a changing and more variable climate, among other factors. He has led (as PI or co-PI) >$13 million in extramural research projects since being appointed to the Berkeley faculty, including collaborative research in California, China, Ecuador, and Senegal. He serves as Deputy Editor of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and Academic Editor of PLoS Global Public Health. Prof. Remais received his MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Kara Nelson is the Blum Chancellor's Chair in Development Engineering and a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She received her B.S. degree in biophysics from U.C. Berkeley (1992), her M.S.E. degree in environmental engineering from the University of Washington (1996), and Ph.D. degree in environmental engineering from the University of California, Davis (2001). In her research program, Prof. Nelson aims to develop innovative technologies and accelerate the adoption of environmentally sustainable and socially equitable water infrastructure and practices around the globe. Specific areas of research include intermittent water supply, wastewater-based epidemiology, water reuse, disinfection, nutrient recovery, and improved sanitation. She teaches courses on innovation in the water sector, drinking water and wastewater treatment processes, pathogen detection and inactivation, and natural treatment systems, taking into consideration the wide range of contexts that exist in low to high-resource communities. Nelson is the recipient of the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Graduate Student Instructors, the Chancellor’s Public Service Award for Campus Community Partnership, a Fulbright Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation PECASE Award. Prof. Nelson is passionate about creating a climate in which everyone belongs and can reach their full potential, and previously served as Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion in the College of Engineering. Prof. Nelson serves as the Associate Director of Development Engineering at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, which offers the Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering and the Professional Masters Degree in Development Engineering. She is currently the President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) From 2011-2022, Nelson held multiple leadership positions in the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Re-inventing our Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt).

Professor Raymond's research interests range from biochemistry and metals in medicine to physical inorganic chemistry. The underlying theme of the research projects is the question of metal-ligand specificity of interaction in coordination and bioinorganic chemistry.

Cooperative Extension Specialist, Adjunct Professor

Department Co-Chair, Francis Williams Chair in Biological Sciences, and Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology

Ph.D. Molecular Biology Princeton University, 2003 B.A. Biology Carleton College, 1998

After a mostly empirical PhD at Liverpool, I held a JSPS Postdoctoral fellowship in the Entomology Department of Kyoto University and a European Union Postdoctoral Fellowship in the mathematical biology group in Kyushu. I then worked in the medical entomology department of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, applying mathematical models to problems in human disease interactions and working on vector ecology in the medical entomology department. I returned to the UK in 2000, on a NERC Advanced Fellowship, and subsequently held Readerships at the Universities of Stirling and Sheffield. I was made Professor of Disease Biology in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences in Sheffield in 2007, moved to Exeter in 2011, and to UC Berkeley in 2015.

Professor, Bioengineering Professor, Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Dr. Niren Murthy is a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Murthy received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle in Bioengineering in 2001, and then did Postdoctoral research at U.C. Berkeley in Chemistry from 2001-2003. He started his academic career at Georgia Tech in 2003 and in 2012 moved back to U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Murthy’s laboratory is an interdisciplinary laboratory that focuses on the development of new materials for drug delivery and molecular imaging. Murthy laboratory has developed several new biomaterials and imaging agents, such as the maltodextrin based imaging agents, which are focused on improving the treatment and diagnosis of infectious diseases. In addition, Murthy laboratory has developed numerous reagents for detecting radical oxidants, such as the hydrocyanines.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology

Stefano M. Bertozzi is a professor of health policy and management. He worked previously with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Mexican National Institute of Public Health, UNAIDS, WHO, the World Bank and the Government of Zaire (DRC). He is the editor in chief of Rapid Reviews: COVID-19.

Emeritus A. Starker Leopold Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Emeritus Chancellor's Professor, Professor in the Graduate Division