Hang Chang

Divisions

Biological Systems and Engineering

• BioEngineering & BioMedical Sciences

Secondary Affiliation:

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Cellular and Tissue Imaging

Research Interests

The research interests in my lab are primarily centered at interfaces between engineering, computation and biology. Our current research focus is on knowledge discovery and inference from large scale scientific data with applications to computational biology and biomedical informatics, including,

• Identification of imaging bio-markers towards personalized therapy; and,
• Development of a big data oriented open-source Information Technology (IT) solution for domain adaptive biomedical informatics.

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Bioenergetics

Research Interests

Our research laboratory utilizes the approaches of mechanistic biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology to address problems in energy and human health. We design and create new biosynthetic pathways in microbial hosts for in vivo production of biofuels from abundant crop feedstocks and pharmaceuticals from natural products or natural product scaffolds. A unifying theme of all of our projects is a focus on gaining a detailed molecular understanding of how living cells control enzymatic processes within the context of the entire metabolic network. Specific projects under current investigation include (i) the in vivo production of biofuels from plant biomass, and (ii) the development of new biosynthetic methods for selective, catalytic C-F bond formation under mild conditions.

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Structural Biology

Research Interests

Professor Clark’s research is in the field of biochemical engineering, with particular emphasis on enzyme technology, biomaterials, and bioenergy. Current projects include the structural characterization and activation of enzymes in non-aqueous media, the development of metabolic biochips for high-throughput catalysis and bioactivity screening, protein design and assembly for the development of advanced biomaterials, and enhanced conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks to biofuels.

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Structural Biology

Research Interests

1. Structure of Biological Macromolecules
2. Beamline Control Systems
3. Automation
4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Programs & Initiatives

• ALS-ENABLE
  
• Beamline 8.3.1
  
• Beamline 12.3.1
  

Divisions

Biological Systems and Engineering

• BioEngineering & BioMedical Sciences

Divisions

Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

• Biosystems Data Science

Secondary Affiliation:

Biological Systems and Engineering

• BioEngineering & BioMedical Sciences

Divisions

Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

• Comparative and Functional Genomics

Biography

Adam Deutschbauer has a background in Microbial systems biology. As part of the Virtual Institute of Microbial Stress and Survival, he develops next-generation tools for microbial functional genomics. As the Biotechnology Component Deputy Director, he will help drive the development of experimental and computational approaches to develop models of microbial metabolism, gene regulation, and signal transduction. He will ensure the teams can meet project goals, encourage integration and collaboration between groups.

Divisions

Biological Systems and Engineering

• Biodesign

Research Interests

The Dueber Lab develops strategies for introducing designable, modular control over living cells. We are particularly interested in generating technologies for improving engineered metabolic pathway efficiency and directing flux. Our projects have applications in the development of biofuels, specialty chemicals, and environmentally friendly processes.

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Bioenergetics

Research Interests

Our group uses and develops advanced multidimensional ultrafast spectroscopic methods to study complex systems such as natural photosynthetic complexes, liquids, solution, and nanoscale systems such as single-walled carbon nanotubes.

In natural photosynthetic systems we aim to define the design principles underlying their remarkable .quantum efficiencies, and to use these principles to aid in the design of robust and efficient artificial photosynthetic devices. Natural systems are also regulated in response to external conditions, such as light levels, and one of the key components of Photosystem II is regularly repaired. We plan to understand the control system at the molecular level by combining molecular genetics biochemistry, modeling, and ultrafast spectroscopy through collaboration with Professor K. K. Niyogi. We have recently shown, using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, that long lived electronic quantum coherence exists in photosynthetic light harvesting complexes. We are exploring the implications of quantum coherence for photosynthesis and for quantum information science.

The electronic properties and excited state dynamics of nanoscale materials with significant quantum confinement effects yield a rich range of properties and potential applications. We aim to understand these properties with a particular current emphasis on single-walled carbon nanotubes via non-linear ultrafast spectroscopy and theoretical modeling.

The modern theoretical description of photochemical processes, in particular what determines which products are formed, has at its core relaxation through conical intersections. Yet very little experimental information is available on such processes. Two dimensional electronic spectroscopy has the potential to provide a window into these processes and experiments to explore conical intersection dynamics are under development.

Ultrafast multidimensional electronic spectroscopy is in its infancy with many potential ways to enhance resolution, sharpen the information content and extract specific dynamical pathways (e.g., those that involve only coherence). My group continues to develop new spectroscopic methods and the theoretical tools for their analysis.

Divisions

Biological Systems and Engineering

• Biodesign

Research Interests

My laboratory studies the mechanics and dynamics of cell movements on the purified protein, single cell, and tissue levels. For these studies, we are developing new instruments to quantify cell and molecular mechanics based on optical microscopy, force microscopy, and microfabrication.

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Bioenergetics

Biography

Matt Francis is the Department of Chemistry Chair and the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor in Chemistry at UC Berkeley. Matt was born in Ohio and received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Miami University in Oxford, OH in 1994. From 1994-1999 he attended graduate school at Harvard University, working in the lab of Prof. Eric Jacobsen. His Ph.D. research involved the development of combinatorial strategies for the discovery and optimization of new transition metal catalysts. He then moved to UC Berkeley, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. He worked under the guidance of Prof. Jean Fréchet, focusing on the development of DNA-based methods for the assembly of polymeric materials and the application of dendrimers for drug delivery. Matt started his independent career in the UC Berkeley Chemistry Department in 2001, and has built a research program involving the development of new organic reactions for protein modification. These new chemical tools have then been used to modify biomolecular assemblies to prepare new materials for diagnostic imaging, wastewater treatment, and solar cell development. For his research accomplishments, Matt has received the Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award, an NSF Career Award, a GlaxoSmithKline Young Investigator Award, the 2017 Bioconjugate Chemistry Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society, and the 2019 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society. Matt became the chair of the chemistry department at UC Berkeley in 2018. Matt has also received the UC Berkeley Departmental Teaching Award on three occasions, the Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the 2009 University Distinguished Teaching Award.

Research Interests

Research in the Francis group is focused on the development of new synthetic methods for the construction of nanoscale materials. The central strategy involves the attachment of new functional components to specific locations on structural proteins, and the subsequent self-assembly of these conjugates into new types of materials with useful electronic and biological functions.

Controlled Growth of Nanocrystalline Arrays Using Cytoskeletal Proteins

Modern synthetic methods for the preparation of inorganic nanocrystals have yielded promising new components for optical and electronic device construction. However, the organization of these materials into functional assemblies remains extremely difficult, in part because the small size of nanocrystals (2-10 nm) is well below the spatial resolution of most lithographic techniques. An alternative approach could be provided by attaching these nanocrystals to specific sites on the surfaces of fiber-forming cytoskeletal proteins, such as actin. By controlling the polymerization of the actin conjugates with additional proteins and small molecule natural products, specified locations could be connected with wire-like arrays of functional materials. Once constructed, the arrays could be converted into conductive linkages, thus providing an entirely new method for nanoscale circuit construction.

Modified Viral Capsids for the Assembly of Core/Shell Materials

A second research area involves the synthesis of three-dimensional nanostructures from the self-assembling proteins that form the outer coats of viruses. For example, by selectively modifying the top and bottom faces of the satellite panicum mosaic virus capsid protein, new types of core/shell materials could be obtained after assembly. These structures could be developed into particles capable of targeting desired tissue types and releasing their cargo of drug molecules. Functionalized viral capsids could also provide new tools for the investigation of multivalent binding interactions that occur in biological systems.

New Methods for Site-Selective Protein Modification

A central theme in this research program is the modification of structural proteins in specific locations in order to achieve homogeneous and predictable assembly. Site-directed mutagenesis provides a powerful set of tools for this purpose, and will be used extensively. However, there are limitations associated with this technique, and therefore the development of new chemical approaches for protein modification will be pursued as well. This research will take advantage of the rapidly expanding set of organic reactions that can proceed in aqueous solution, and will utilize asymmetric ligands and catalysts to enhance the selectivity of protein modifications. Combinatorial reaction libraries will play an important role in this research area.

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Bioenergetics

Biography

Naomi S. Ginsberg is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics at University of California, Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist in the Materials Sciences and Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Imaging Divisions at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she has been since 2010. She currently focuses on elucidating the electronic and molecular dynamics in a wide variety of soft electronic and biological materials by devising new electron and optical imaging modalities that enable characterization of fast and ultrafast processes at the nanoscale and as a function of their heterogeneities. Naomi received a B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2007, after which she held a Glenn T. Seaborg Postdoctoral Fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her background in chemistry, physics, and engineering has previously led her to observe initiating events of photosynthesis that take place in a millionth billionth of a second and to slow, stop, and store light pulses in some of the coldest atom clouds on Earth. She is the Berkeley lead of STROBE, a multi-university NSF Science and Technology Center devoted to imaging science, a member of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute at Berkeley, and the recipient of a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (2011), a DARPA Young Faculty Award (2012), an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2015), and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2016) in addition to a series of teaching awards in the physical sciences. In 2017-18 she was a Miller Professor for Basic Research in Science at UC Berkeley and was designated a Kavli Fellow.

Research Interests

We are pushing the limits of spatially resolved spectroscopy and time resolved microscopy in multiple modalities, tailored to answer fundamental and challenging questions that span chemistry, physics, and biology.

• How can we investigate the optical properties of soft matter and biological systems well below the diffraction limit? Can the nanoscale dynamics of both matter and energy in these systems be studied non-invasively in real-time?

• How does the local morphology of organic electronics affect their exciton dynamics? What is the relationship between local electron dynamics and overall device performance?

• How can we learn from the remarkable efficiency of photosynthesis to guide the design and optimization of biomimetic light harvesting systems? How can energy flow be manipulated?

A common theme in our work is to investigate light-matter interactions in the near- and far-field, on ultrafast time scales, with light and electron optics, in vacuum and in the condensed phase. Please consult the Research page for additional detail.