COVID-19

Chemistry researchers work to develop new drug to inhibit COVID-19

May 19, 2020
by Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley Public Affairs

COVID-19 drug discovery

Thanks to Fast Grants, a rapid funding program activated six weeks ago, a group of seven COVID-19 research projects has started at UC Berkeley that could turn up new diagnostic and potential treatments for the infection within months. One project is being lead by Daniel Nomura, a professor of chemistry, molecular and cell biology, and nutritional sciences and toxicology. He is working with a group of investigators, and fellow professors, planning to use innovative chemical biology approaches to develop novel therapeutics against COVID-19.

Crispr, not just for gene editing

October 30, 2020
Jennifer Newton | Chemistry World

Illustration of Crispr-Cas activity

Crispr–Cas is part of an ancient bacterial immune system that detects and chops up invading viruses’ DNA. Source: © Science Photo Library

Thanks to the 2020 chemistry Nobel prize, Crispr–Cas systems will...

UC Berkeley and Gladstone scientists develop new Covid-19 test

December 7, 2020
by Kara Manke | UC Berkeley Public Relations

image for lighting up covid test

In the diagnostic test, a patient sample is mixed with CRISPR Cas13 proteins (purple) and molecular probes (green) which fluoresce, or light up, when cut. When coronavirus RNA is present in the sample, it prompts the CRISPR proteins to snip the molecular probes, causing the whole sample to emit light. This fluorescence can be detected with a cell phone camera. (Image courtesy...

Impacts of virtual mentoring on STEM students

June 30, 2020
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Person using laptop

Photo: Lawrence Berkeley Lab

The innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) has awarded a new research project in the College of Chemistry that is looking at the effects of COVID-19 on STEM mentoring. Headed by Laleh Coté, and including fellow PIs Anne M. Baranger, and Colette Flood, the funding is part of...

Teresa Head-Gordon receives COVID-19 research funding

June 25, 2020
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release
Teresa Head-Gordon, Chancellor's Professor of Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, joins three colleagues from Berkeley Engineering who have received funding from the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute for COVID-19 projects.

COVID Stories: Sourdough bread with a purpose

March 24, 2021
Gretchen Kell | UC Berkeley media relations

Brendan Huang, Carolyn Hong

Seniors Brendan Huang and Carolyn Hong, who both have received the COVID-19 vaccine and are in the same social bubble, met in an organic chemistry lab as sophomores, became fast friends and wound up baking sourdough bread together. It’s an adventure that Hong calls “our sourdough journey.” (Photo by Talia Patt)

Friends Carolyn Hong and Brendan Huang had a delicious...

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

May 8, 2024
By Robert Sanders | Berkeley News
Biosynthesis in yeast produces a cheaper immune-boosting ingredient of many vaccines.

Molecular Sciences Software Institute launches open-source data sharing project for COVID-19

May 26, 2020
Virginia Tech Press release
The Molecular Sciences Software Institute has launched an open-source website that will allow biomolecular scientists from around the world to share computer-aided drug-testing simulations targeting the protein at the center of COVID-19.

An expert on 'undruggable' targets tackles the coronavirus

October 5, 2020
Becky Bish | The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research

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,...

CRISPR and the Code Breaker

March 8, 2021
CBS Sunday Morning news

Visionary biochemist Jennifer Doudna shared the Nobel Prize last year for the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which has the potential to cure diseases caused by genetic mutations. Correspondent David Pogue talks with Doudna about the promises and perils of CRISPR; and with Walter Isaacson, author of the new book "The Code Breaker," about why the biotech revolution will dwarf the digital revolution in importance.

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