Cancer Research

Dan Nomura receives ASPIRE Award for cancer research

February 23, 2023

Dan Nomura

Dan Nomura in his lab. Photo by Elena Zhukova.

The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research has announced twelve outstanding research projects to receive its latest round of ASPIRE awards. Grantees from top academic institutions in Germany...

The future of biochemistry

January 12, 2018

ACS Biochemistry Issue CoverThe 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...

Science world honors Kevan Shokat for high-impact cancer research

February 20, 2023

Kevan Shokat photographed at UCSF

Kevan Shokat photographed at UCSF. Photo by Noah Berger.

The UC San Francisco scientist who developed a successful approach to drugging a protein produced by the mutated KRAS gene has won two prestigious awards in the opening weeks of 2023. The discovery, made by...

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...

Vicinitas Therapeutics Launches to Advance Precision Medicines to Stabilize Key Proteins to Treat Disease

July 28, 2022

Logo for Vicinitas Therapeutics

Berkeley, CA

It was announced today that Vicinitas Therapeutics, a biotechnology company advancing a proprietary targeted protein stabilization platform to develop novel...

Novartis and UC Berkeley Extend Alliance to tackle undruggable diseases

July 28, 2022

Illustration of DUBTAC target

Illustration of DUBTAC in action against a target. (Courtesy Nomura Lab)

Novartis-Berkeley Translational Chemical Biology Institute combines Novartis expertise in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry with Berkeley’s expertise in covalent chemoproteomics and chemistry methodologies Research collaboration aims to unlock...

Scientists find trigger that sets off metastasis in pancreatic cancer

July 5, 2022

Illustration of Healthy pancreas (left) and metastatic tumors on the liver (right)

Scientists have found that cancers in the pancreas (left) readily metastasize because these tumors suppress levels of an enzyme, MSRA, that pulls oxygen atoms off amino acids called methionine. As MSRA levels decrease, methionines on...

An expert on 'undruggable' targets tackles the coronavirus

October 5, 2020

Dan Nomura

Nomura in his lab at UC Berkeley. Photo: Elena Zhukova

Throughout the grim reality of a global pandemic that has disrupted normal life for months, one persistent bright spot has been the robust response of the biomedical research community. The battle to develop vaccines and drugs to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19, the disease which it causes,...

How scientists shot down cancer’s ‘Death Star’

February 5, 2021

lung cancer cell

A colored scanning electron micrograph of a cell of a common type of lung cancer, called non-small cell cancer. A new drug targets the mutated protein that leads to uncontrolled growth. Credit Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source

After 40 years of effort, researchers have finally succeeded in switching off...

Megaphages harbor mini-Cas proteins ideal for gene editing

July 20, 2020

Illustration of a megaphage injecting its DNA into a gene

The DNA-cutting proteins central to CRISPR-Cas9 and related gene-editing tools originally came from bacteria, but a newfound variety of Cas proteins apparently evolved in viruses that infect bacteria. The new Cas proteins were found in the largest known bacteria-infecting viruses, called bacteriophages, and are the most compact working Cas variants yet discovered — half the size of today’s workhorse, Cas9.