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Ke Xu Receives NIH New Innovator Award

October 15, 2018

Ke Xu, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging, has been awarded a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award as part of the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. Supported by the NIH Common Fund, these grants catalyze “exceptionally innovative” biomedical research with “transformative potential” from early career investigators who have never received an NIH grant before. An assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, Xu develops new physical and chemical tools to explore biological, chemical, and materials systems at the nanoscale with extraordinary resolution and sensitivity. He takes a multidimensional approach that integrates advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, cell biology, and nanotechnology. Xu is among 89 New Innovator Award recipients for 2018. Each grant comes with $1.5 million in direct funds for five years.

Read more from UC Berkeley News.

Super-Resolution Microscopy Reveals Fine Detail of Cellular Mesh

February 1, 2018

Red Blood Cell mesh

Ke Xu, faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, used super-resolution microscopy to reveal the geodesic mesh supporting red blood cells, enabling them to be sturdy yet flexible enough to squeeze through narrow capillaries as they carry oxygen to tissues. The discovery could help uncover how malaria parasites hijack this mesh and destroy red blood cells. Read more at UC Berkeley News.

The Strings That Bind Us: Cytofilaments Connect Cell Nucleus to Extracellular Microenvironment

January 25, 2017

New images of structural fibers inside a cell appear in a study featured on the cover of the Journal of Cell Science special issue on 3D Cell Biology, published this month. The images, obtained by scientists in the Biosciences Area, show thread-like cytofilaments reaching into and traversing a human breast cell’s chromatin-packed nucleus. cytofilamentIt provides the first visual evidence of a physical link by which genes can receive mechanical cues from its microenvironment.

The work leading up to the images began in the early 1980s when Biological Systems & Engineering’s Mina Bissell proposed the idea that gene expression and cell fate were dependent on their physical surroundings called extracellular matrix. The images were captured by Manfred Auer, staff scientist, and Ke Xu, faculty scientist, both in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division. Read more at the Berkeley Lab News Center.

Ke Xu Awarded 2016 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering

December 1, 2016

Ke Xu

Ke Xu, chemist faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division, is a recipient of a 2016 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. He was awarded $875K over five years for the development of tools to interrogate biological, chemical, and materials systems at the nanoscale with extraordinary resolution and sensitivity.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation named 18 of the nation’s most innovative early-career scientists and engineers as recipients of the 2016 fellowships. The foundation established the fellowships program in 1988 to provide early-career scientists with flexible funding and the freedom to take risks and explore new frontiers in their fields.

Biosciences Researchers Receive Sloan Fellowships

February 24, 2016

Ke Xu (left) and Wenjun Zhang (right) of the Biosciences Area have been named Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellows. Xu is a faculty chemist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division and ZhanXu_Zhang_Sloang is a faculty biologist in the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division. These scientists are two of the eight UC Berkeley assistant professors to be honored by the Foundation, along with 118 other new fellows announced today. Fellowships are awarded in eight scientific and technical fields: chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. Read more at Berkeley News.

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