EGSB News

Researchers have shown that when parts of a genome known as enhancers are missing, the heart works abnormally, a finding that bolsters the importance of DNA segments once considered “junk” because they do not code for specific proteins. The study, led by Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology (EGSB) Division scientists Diane Dickel, Axel Visel and Len Pennacchio, appears in the journal Nature Communications. The team included other members of EGSB’s Mammalian Functional Genomics Laboratory and collaborators from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and UC San Diego.

The Biosciences Area is pleased to announce that Adam Deutschbauer and Diane Dickel have agreed to take on new leadership positions in the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology (EGSB) Division. Deutschbauer, previously the department head of Functional Genomics, is rising to the position of EGSB co-deputy for science, and Dickel will assume the role of … Read more »

A new study, led by Gary Karpen of the Biological Systems & Engineering (BSE) Division, links the overexpression of 14 genes related to cell division to cancer patients’ prognosis and response to specific treatments. The researchers said the findings, published today in the journal Nature Communications, could lead to a new biomarker for the early stages of tumor development. The information obtained could help reduce the use of cancer treatments that have a low probability of helping.

The research team included lead author Weiguo Zhang and Jian-Hua Mao of BSE; collaborators Wei zhu and Anshu Jain; and Ke Liu and James (Ben) Brown of the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division. Read more on the Berkeley Lab News Center.

The Biosciences Area partnered with Biotech Partners (BP) this summer by providing internships to 13 high school students. The mission of the non-profit Biotech Partners is to educate underserved youth in the Bay Area with personal, academic and professional development experiences that increase participation in higher education and access to fulfilling science careers. The Biotech … Read more »

Jay Keasling, Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences, announced that N. Louise Glass, PhD, has accepted the position of Division Director for the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology (EGSB) Division. She will continue as a professor at UC Berkeley while she leads the Division, beginning this July.