Biomanufacturing

Yeast produce low-cost, high-quality cannabinoids

February 27, 2019
UC Berkeley synthetic biologists have engineered brewer’s yeast to produce marijuana’s main ingredients—mind-altering THC and non-psychoactive CBD.

An adjuvant made in yeast could lower vaccine cost and boost availability

May 8, 2024
Biosynthesis in yeast produces a cheaper immune-boosting ingredient of many vaccines.

Summer intern Arjun Garapaty designs microfluidic device

September 9, 2022

Arjun Garapaty at MRI Global

Arjun Garapaty during his summer internship at MRIGlobal. Photo courtesy of MRIGlobal.

Arjun Garapaty thinks big. It wasn’t that long ago that he earned a perfect score on his ACT test… as a sophomore in high school. Now a sophomore at University of California,...

Making Renewable, Infinitely Recyclable Plastics Using Bacteria

July 27, 2023
Scientists engineered microbes to make the ingredients for recyclable plastics – replacing finite, polluting petrochemicals with sustainable alternatives.

Sanjay Kumar named QB3-Berkeley director

September 5, 2022

Sanjay Kumar

Professor Kumar photographed at UC Berkeley. (Photo Annie Lin)

This week UC Berkeley’s office for the Vice Chancellor for Research announced that Professor Sanjay Kumar has been selected to serve as the next director of the...

Meet our faculty: David Schaffer, pioneer in bioengineering and gene therapies

October 4, 2022

David Schaffer, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, Molecular and Cell Biology, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at U.C. Berkeley, gave a presentation during homecoming on the future of gene therapies and stem cell therapies. Viewed as the next stages of medical treatments, Prof. Schaffer discusses some of the exciting research coming from his lab.

Congressman Garamendi’s staff visits the College of Chemistry

September 9, 2022

L to R, Jason Ryder, Elle Ekman, and Marley Cassels

Pictured from L to R, Executive Director of the Masters of Bioprocess Engineering Jason Ryder speaking with Elle Ekman, Legislative Assistant for Defense and Veterans Affairs; and Marley Cassels, Defense Fellow in Congressman Garamendi's Washington, DC office....

An anti-cancer drug in short supply can now be made by microbes

September 1, 2022

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer’s yeast, has been dyed blue to be seen under a microscope.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer’s yeast, is seen under a microscope. This species is used around the world to...

They call it a ‘women’s disease.’ Alumna Linda Griffith wants to redefine it.

July 9, 2021

Linda Griffith

Alumna Linda G. Griffith is a professor of biological and mechanical engineering at M.I.T., and its director of the Center for Gynepathology Research. “I don’t want to make endometriosis a women’s issue,” she said in 2014. “I want to make it an M.I.T. issue.” Photo credit Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Most labs devoted...

One-of-a-kind course aims to build the bioeconomy workforce

July 7, 2021

Tiffany Chen, a UC Berkeley chemical engineering student,

Tiffany Chen, a UC Berkeley chemical engineering student, loads a sample into the AMBR 250 device as part of UC Berkeley’s “Advanced Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory” class, which introduces advanced concepts of bioprocessing to chemical engineering students, at Berkeley Lab’s...