PREP FACULTY

Faculty Profile

Andrea Gomez, PhD

Assistant Professor, Neurobiology.
The Gomez lab uses molecular biology, electrophysiology, and functional imaging to decode the instructive cues that organize neural networks. We focus on mechanisms that specify synaptic properties and determine how these properties bias the timescales of neuronal computation. We are working to discover how synaptic dysfunction manifests in conditions like autism, intellectual disability, and neurodegeneration.

Faculty Profile

Christopher Chang, PhD

Professor, Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology.
Our laboratory studies the chemistry of biology and energy, where we advance new concepts in imaging, proteomics, drug discovery, and catalysis. Our work draws from core disciplines of inorganic, organic, and biological chemistry and features a diverse range of elements across the periodic table of life.

Faculty Profile

Samantha Lewis, PhD

Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology.
Defects in mitochondrial DNA cause hereditary metabolic diseases that impact tissues with high energy demand such as the brain, muscle and heart and are also linked to cancer and the innate immune response. The Lewis Lab team aims to reveal the mechanisms that ensure mtDNA integrity and inheritance in animal cells, using quantitative imaging, genetics, and systems biology approaches.

Faculty Profile

Priya Moorjani, PhD

Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Our lab focuses questions in human population genetics and evolutionary biology. A central aim in the lab is to understand evolutionary history and its impact on human adaptation and disease. The research in the lab involves both methods development and large-scale genomic data analysis.

Faculty Profile

Robert Eric Betzig, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Eric Betzig received the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Research in the Betzig Lab at Janelia is advancing the understanding and application of multiple imaging technologies including: lattice light sheet, adaptive optics, cryogenic correlative light and electron microscopy, and live cell structured illumination microscopy. These advances are allowing scientists to reveal and decipher the structure and dynamics of living cells and tissues in unprecedented detail.

Faculty Profile

Danica Chen, PhD

Professor, Metabolic Biology, Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology.
Her research aims to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying aging-associated conditions and elucidate which aspects of aging-associated conditions are reversible. Recent studies from her lab have revealed mitochondrial stress as a cause of stem cell exhaustion and tissue degeneration during aging.

Faculty Profile

Jeff Cox, PhD

Professor, molecular and Cell Biology.
We are fascinated by the mechanisms by which pathogenic bacteria manipulate their host to cause infections. We focus primarily on tuberculosis, but apply our unique perspective on the molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions to a broad spectrum of organisms.

Faculty Profile

Marla Feller, PhD

Professor, Neurobiology.
We are interested in the mechanisms that guide the assembly of neural circuits during development. We use the retinas as a model system, where we use two-photon imaging, electrophysiology and a variety of anatomical approaches

Faculty Profile

Hernan Garcia, PhD

Assistant Professor, Genetics, Genomics and Development.
Over the last few decades, impressive progress has been made in uncovering how embryonic development is driven by genes connected in complex regulatory networks. Our research goal is to endow these networks with quantitative and molecular information that makes it possible to precisely predict how the gene expression patterns that dictate cellular identity are prescribed by input activators and repressors, and the arrangement of binding sites for these transcription factors on the DNA.

Faculty Profile

Rebecca Heald, PhD

Professor, molecular and Cell Biology.
Our interdisciplinary approaches take advantage of cytoplasmic extracts prepared from eggs of the frog Xenopus laevis that reconstitute mitotic chromosome condensation and spindle assembly and function in vitro. We seek to provide new insight into the underlying principles of spindle assembly and biological size control, as well as the molecular basis of variation that contributes to genomic instability and evolution.

Faculty Profile

James Hurley, PhD

Professor, molecular and Cell Biology.
The interplay between proteins and membrane lipids is central to almost every aspect of cell biology. This laboratory is interested in fundamental questions of how the interactions between proteins and membranes determine cell and organelle shape and the evolution of shape over time, how protein-membrane interactions turn on and off the signals that control essential cell processes, and how pathogens such as HIV-1 subvert and co-opt these interactions.

Faculty Profile

Ehud Isacoff, PhD

Professor, Neurobiology.
Our lab's research is focused in four intersecting and complementary areas: mechanisms of ion channel function, synapse development and plasticity, neural circuit function, and the design of novel probes for the optical detection of neuronal signaling.

Faculty Profile

Sona Kang, PhD

Professor, Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology.
Our research goal is to gain more accurate understanding of how epigenetic and transcriptional regulators control (patho)physiology of adipose and other metabolic tissues. Ultimately, we hope to identify novel drug targets for more safe and efficient therapeutic intervention to relevant metabolic disorders including obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Faculty Profile

George Brooks, PhD

Professor, Integrative Biology.
Dr. Brooks has spent more than four decades investigating energy substrate use in humans. His current research is aimed at identifying treatments for individuals suffering from injuries and infections associated with lactic acidosis, such as traumatic brain injury, heart failure, inflammatory conditions, and HIV infection.

Faculty Profile

Daniela Kaufer, PhD

Professor, Integrative Biology.
The Kaufer Lab investigates molecular events that underlie brain plasticity and deterioration in the face of stress and neurological insults throughout life. While we are primarily a molecular neuroscience lab, we use interdisciplinary approaches ranging from cell culture to behavioral analysis, and frequently collaborate to expand our methods of analysis including high-resolution imaging, electrophysiology, and high-throughput methods.

Faculty Profile

John Kuriyan, PhD

Professor, Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology.
Our lab studies the mechanisms, evolution, and structures of the molecular switches that carry out cellular signal transduction. We use biochemical, biophysical, structural and cell biological analyses to elucidate mechanisms, and also study how these mechanisms change with evolution. A major focus of the lab is to understand the allosteric communication that enables proteins to be exquisitely responsive to input signals.

Faculty Profile

Polina Lishko, PhD

Associate Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Research in Lishko Lab is focused on the cell biology of mammalian fertilization. They study the molecular mechanisms that regulate egg fertility, sperm motility and the acrosome reaction. A better understanding of these processes will lead to the development of novel approaches to control and preserve human fertility, improve the human reproductive health worldwide and advance family planning.

Faculty Profile

Kunxin Luo, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
We are interested in the signal transduction pathways that regulate development and cancer. We employ in vitro mechanistic studies in tissue culture cells in combination with biological analyses using in vivo mouse models to understand how disruption of the normal signaling network leads to developmental defects and human cancer.

Faculty Profile

Michael Marletta, PhD

Professor, Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology.
Work in our laboratory lies at the interface of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on the study of protein function and enzyme reaction mechanism to understand complex biological functions.

Faculty Profile

Susan Marqusee, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
The long-term goal of our research is to understand the structural and dynamic information encoded in the linear sequence of amino acids. Our laboratory uses a combination of biophysical, structural and computational techniques to understand these features.

Faculty Profile

Sabeeha Merchant, PhD

Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology.
The group seeks to understand the dynamics of essential trace-metal - copper, zinc, iron, manganese - metabolism and homeostasis in the reference green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii using state of the art methods including classical genetics, transcriptomics and proteomics, elemental analysis and high-resolution metal imaging.

Faculty Profile

Mike Boots, PhD

Professor, Integrative Biology.
His research focuses on the ecology/epidemiology and evolution of infectious disease. The overall aim is to understand the evolution of parasites, of host defense and how infectious organisms spread, persist and affect their host populations. His lab use a combination of evolutionary theory, experimental host-parasite systems, epidemiological models of wildlife and human tropical disease, and field entomology.

Faculty Profile

Eva Nogales, PhD

Professor, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology.
The Nogales's lab is dedicated to gaining mechanistic insight into two important areas of eukaryotic biology: central dogma machinery in the control of gene expression, and cytoskeleton interactions and dynamics in cell division. The unifying principle in our work is the study of macromolecular assemblies as whole units of molecular function by direct visualization of their architecture, functional states, and regulatory interactions.

Faculty Profile

Daniel Nomura, PhD

Professor, Chemical Biology.
The Nomura Research Group is focused on reimagining druggability by advancing and applying chemoproteomic platforms to tackle the undruggable proteome, towards developing next-generation therapies and therapeutic modalities for human diseases.

Faculty Profile

James Olzmann, PhD

Associate Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
The Olzmann research group employs a combination of systems biology, chemical biology, and cell biology strategies to elucidate the principles of organelle biogenesis and lipid homeostasis. We are particularly interested in understanding the regulation and functions of neutral lipid storage organelles called lipid droplets.

Faculty Profile

Eunyong Park, PhD

Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
His research group is interested in understanding molecular mechanisms of membrane proteins that mediate transport of ions and molecules across lipid bilayers. To understand how these molecular machines work, they combine structural, biochemical, and biophysical approaches. Particularly we use cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine atomic structures of protein complexes.

Faculty Profile

Daniel Portoy, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology and Public Health.
The lab is focused on the interaction of the facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes and its mammalian host. This fascinating microorganism is able to enter cells, escape from a phagosome, circumvent autophagy, avoid cell death pathways, and grow rapidly in the cytosol. Current research covers many topics including basic microbiology, the cell biology of infection, innate immune responses, acquired immunity, and vaccine development to both infectious diseases and cancer.

Faculty Profile

Michael Rape, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Almost every aspect of eukaryotic cellular life is regulated by ubiquitin, a small "ubiquitious" protein that can be appended onto other proteins. In the Rape Lab at UC Berkeley, we use a variety of biochemical, biophysical, and cellular techniques to understand ubiquitin and its role in regulating fundamental processes in development and disease.

Faculty Profile

David Raulet, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Our laboratory investigates mechanisms of recognition of cancer cells and infected cells by natural killer cells and T cells. Furthermore we investigate mechanisms by which tumors and infectious agents naturally activate or inhibit productive responses by cytotoxic cells, or desensitize the cells by inducing anergy. Our aim is to harness these findings to improve existing immunotherapies for cancer and design new ones.

Faculty Profile

Ellen Robey, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
The Robey lab is interested in how signaling pathways control cell fate decisions. By using T cell development and immune responses in the mouse as model systems, we can take advantage of the powerful genetic approaches available in the mouse, while learning about a mammalian immune system that is very close to our own. Our lab also makes extensive use of 2-photon imaging approaches to observe and analyze T cell behavior in real-time in situ.

Faculty Profile

David Schaffer, PhD

Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Neuroscience.
The Schaffer research group applies molecular and cellular engineering approaches to investigate biomedical problems focused on engineering of stem cell and gene therapeutics.

Faculty Profile

Randy Schekman, PhD

Nobel Laureate & Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Our lab studies membrane assembly, vesicular transport, and membrane fusion among organelles of the secretory pathway. Basic principles that emerged from our past studies in yeast are now being applied to studies of genetic diseases of protein transport, as well to the study of extracellular vesicles.

Faculty Profile

Kristin Scott, PhD

Professor, Neurobiology.
Our lab studies the gustatory system in Drosophila melanogaster to understand how sensory information is processed by the brain to give rise to specific behaviors. Drosophila sense many of the same taste stimuli as mammals, including sugars, salts, acids, alcohols and noxious chemicals. These compounds mediate acceptance or avoidance behaviors, and activation of a single sensory neuron is sufficient to produce a behavior.

Faculty Profile

Sarah Stanley, PhD

Associate Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
Our lab is interested in identifying new molecular mechanisms that mediate both successful immune control and evasion of immunity by the pathogen. We utilize a wide range of techniques and approaches, including bacterial and host genetics, microscopy, chemical biology, and proteomics to understand the physiology of Mtb inside of macrophages and the host pathways that are key mediators of the host-pathogen interaction.

Faculty Profile

Denis Titov, PhD

Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology & Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology,.
The long-term goal of our laboratory is to uncover the molecular mechanism(s) driving the effect of nutrition on aging and age-associated diseases. We are interested in the following broad questions: How does diet extend lifespan and delay onset of age-associated diseases? How can we develop mathematical models of metabolism that will accurately predict experimental results? How can we predict the diet that will increase the lifespan of an individual animal?

Faculty Profile

Russell Vance, PhD

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology.
We are interested in understanding how the immune system detects the presence of infectious microbes. We use all the tools of modern molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics to dissect the fundamental mechanisms that provide host defense. We are also interested in understanding the mechanisms by which pathogens evade host immunity and cause disease.

Faculty Profile

Ashley Wolf, PhD

Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, School of Public Health Center for Computational Biology,.
Disruption to gut microbiota structure is linked to diverse human diseases including colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and diabetes. A deeper understanding of how bacteria compete in the mammalian gut is foundational to understanding dysbiosis in disease states, as well as microbial impacts on the host. The Wolf Lab combines human microbiome data, laboratory models, and computational analyses to ask questions about the role of diet, microbial competition, and host factors in gut microbiome structure and function

Faculty Profile

Yang Dan, PhD

Professor, Neurobiology.
Our research aims to elucidate (1) what circuits in the mammalian brain control sleep, and (2) mechanisms by which the frontal cortex exerts top-down executive control. We use a variety of techniques, including optogenetics, electrophysiology, imaging, and virus-mediated circuit tracing.