A team of researchers led by Niren Murthy, a faculty scientist in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division, have created a test that can identify bacteria that are resistant to certain classes of antibiotics in a matter of minutes. The results of the test help doctors prescribe the right antibiotics for each infection and could help limit the spread of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs.’ These ‘superbugs’ actually contribute to about 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, but this new test increases patient’s chances of survival since the correct drug can be prescribed almost immediately.
Ke Xu Receives NIH New Innovator Award
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.
Gut Bacteria’s Shocking Secret: They Produce Electricity
UC Berkeley scientists have discovered that a common diarrhea-causing bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes, produces electricity using an entirely different technique from known electrogenic bacteria—and that hundreds of other bacterial species use this same process. The scientists worked Caroline Ajo-Franklin, a staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry who has a secondary appointment in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging, on this research. Read more from the UC Berkeley News Center.
David Schaffer Selected as a Bakar Fellow
David Schaffer, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB), has been selected as a Bakar Fellow for his work engineering cells to increase the production of viral vectors that can deliver genes into patients. In particular, delivery vehicles (vectors) based on the adeno-associated virus (AAV) have achieved success in clinical trials for rare diseases including hemophilia. But AAV is difficult to produce in sufficient quantity to bring gene therapy into routine clinical use. Schaffer, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Berkeley, is working to engineer cells for enhanced AAV vector production. With the support of the Bakar Fellows Program, he will work to create virus-producing cell lines that can generate many-fold higher levels of AAV vector than the current industry standard. Read the Berkeley News article to learn more about the award and his research.
Markita Landry wins DARPA Young Faculty Award
Markita Landry, a faculty affiliate of the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, has received a prestigious two-year Department Of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award for her work developing optical probes for neuromodulators such as dopamine. An assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Berkeley, Landry conducts research at the intersection of single-molecule biophysics and nanomaterial-polymer science to develop new tools to probe and characterize complex biological systems. The DARPA project will focus on using synthetic near-infrared optical nanosensors—a new technology developed in the Landry lab—to develop a brain-computer interface driven by neurochemistry. Currently such technologies rely on electrical signals for signal acquisition, processing, and machine learning algorithms. Read a Berkeley Neuroscience news article to learn about how the award will allow her to investigate visualizing the probes in awake and behaving animals.
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