Susan E. Celniker
Biochemist Senior Scientist
Building: Potter Street (977), Room 160
Mail Stop: 977
Phone: (510) 486-6258
Fax: (510) 486-6798
SECelniker@lbl.gov
Divisions
Biological Systems and Engineering
- BioEngineering & BioMedical Sciences
Secondary Affiliation:
Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology
- Comparative and Functional Genomics
Biography
Dr. Celniker graduated from Pitzer College with a B.A. in Biology and Anthropology, followed by two years at the City of Hope National Medical Center in the Department of Medical Genetics studying brain proteins from Huntington’s patients. After completing her dissertation at Caltech, she received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She accepted an NIH Postdoctoral Service Award (1983-1986) to work with E.B. Lewis (Nobel Laureate, 1995) conducting a genetic analysis of the bithorax complex, homeotic gene, Abdominal-B. She continued to work with Dr. Lewis until 1996, when she was hired as a Staff Scientist at Berkeley Lab. In 2001, she was a co-recipient of the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for “The Genome Sequence of Drosophila melanogaster.”
She led the effort to characterize the Drosophila transcriptome for NHGRI’s modENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project. She is an advisor to FlyBase (2007-present), on the editorial boards of BMC Genomics (2009-present) and G3 (2011-present), and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Previously, she served as the Deputy Director of the Life Sciences Division as well as the Biological Systems and Engineering Division from 2016-2021.
Recent Publications
Related News
Researchers Aid in Quest to Identify GMOs
Biosciences Area researchers led testing and evaluation of technologies developed to quickly distinguish genetically modified organisms from naturally occurring ones. They designed and produced biological samples of increasing complexity to assess how well the tools performed.
Microbes to the Rescue
A team of researchers from the Biosciences Area at Berkeley Lab and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom found one particular organism in the fly’s microbiome that helps protect it from atrazine, an herbicide toxic to flies that is commonly used in agriculture. This method of rescuing fruit flies from atrazine poisoning with probiotics may be useful for protecting pollinators in agriculture.
A Laser-powered Upgrade to Cancer Treatment
Researchers in the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division are collaborating with colleagues at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center to adapt the nascent technology of laser-driven ion accelerators to make a more effective type of radiation more readily available to patients. The mutually beneficial partnership gives BELLA scientists a real-world application around which to refine their experimental laser platform, and gives the biologists a chance to test how living tissue responds to laser-driven proton beams at FLASH dose rates.
