The ACS January 2018 Special Biochemistry Issue has included College of Chemistry professors Ming Hammond, Evan Miller, and David Savage among the 44 early career scientists identified as representing the future of biochemistry. These scientists are noted by the publication for tackling problems of biological relevance.
For more detailed information read the ACS editorial by Alanna Schepartz — Introducing the "Future of Biochemistry" Special Issue.
Ming Hammond
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
The Hammond Group has a dual focus on nucleic acids as engineerable biosensors and as novel signaling agents. They are one of the first groups to develop fluorescent biosensors made of RNA for live cell imaging of otherwise “invisible” chemical signals. The Hammond Group aims to continue leading the development of novel biosensors to broadly enable high-throughput screening, microscopy, flow cytometry, and other bioanalytical methods to study enzyme activity, metabolism, and signaling in cells, tissues, and organisms. Their current major biological focus is understanding how bacterial and immune cells make decisions. Via the study of key cyclic dinucleotide signaling pathways that control the autonomous behavior of these cell types, the research group's long-term goals are to provide new ways to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria and to enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies.
Evan Miller
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
The Miller Lab operates at the interface of organic chemistry, chemical biology, and neuroscience. The lab uses principles of molecular design to invent, build, and apply new chemical tools for understanding fundamental cell physiology. In particular, the research group is interested in how cells, tissues, and organs use ionic fluxes and the resulting changes in membrane potential to drive a host of important processes.
David Savage
Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
Research in the Savage Lab focuses on developing integrative tools for studying protein function. Their model system of interest is photosynthetic carbon dioxide assimilation. Current projects include mechanistic studies of CO2-assimilating proteins, protein engineering experiments to evolve new function, and cell biological and genetic studies to understand how this machinery functions in the context of the cell. In addition, the lab develops enabling tools in the genome editing space to facilitate these experiments.
Protein science by DNA sequencing: How advances in molecular biology are accelerating biochemistry