URAP

Ellen Simms - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Introduced plants can become invasive when they escape the insect and microbial enemies that control native plant populations. Legumes benefit from symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia, which colonize nodules in legume roots. We have found that three invasive leguminous plant species (French broom, Spanish broom, and Scotch...

Ellen Simms - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Until recently there was still the idea that when it comes to the microbial world, since it is so small, everything must be everywhere. Much current research is showing this claim does not hold water. Few things are truly everywhere and most things, even on the micro scale, have very...

Ellen Simms - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Bacteriophages (phages, for short) are viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Phages tend to be host specific (specialize on particular bacteria), which allows them to influence bacterial community composition. Legumes are plants that benefit from symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia, which colonize nodules in legume roots. Rhizobia...

Ellen Simms - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

High temperature is an abiotic stress that impedes the growth and productivity of all crops irrespective of their heat tolerance. High temperature affects the development of both vegetative and reproductive structures. It arrests cell proliferation arrest, increases vacuolization, causes over-development of chloroplasts, certain abnormalities in other organelles, and comprehensively...

Jae Ho Sohn - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Radiologists are doctors who specialize in extracting clinically useful information from medical images (such as CT, chest X-ray, and MRIs) and communicating these findings with other doctors. We leverage abstract clinical reasoning and visual pattern recognition skills to extract hidden information in the images that may be important for...

Carol Spencer - Staff Curator, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

We are taking new students for Prep Lab Assistant, Bone Numbering and Tag Tying, Bird, Herp, Fish and Mammal Curatorial Assistants. See descriptions below. At the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), University of California, Berkeley, we offer many unique opportunities to participate in MVZ endeavors and learn about natural history...

Max Staller - Assistant Researcher, Center for Computational Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

It is now clear that roughly a third of the amino acids in human proteins are intrinsically disordered and do not fold into a single 3D structure. Some of these regions transiently fold when bound to partners, but many simply wiggle between many confirmations. These disordered regions cannot be visualized...

Max Staller - Assistant Researcher, Center for Computational Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Transcription factors contain DNA binding domains and separate activation domains that bind coactivator complexes. DNA binding domains are conserved, structured and can be predicted from amino acid sequence. Activation domains are intrinsically disordered (they do not fold into a single 3D structure), poorly conserved and cannot be predicted from amino...

Max Staller - Assistant Researcher, Center for Computational Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Our group has developed simple and highly predictive models for transcriptional activation domains. The goal of the project is to identify human activation domains enriched for patient mutations...

Jason Su - Associate Researcher, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

The purpose of this proposed research is to investigate the impact of air pollution exposure on metabolic outcomes, specifically focusing on Type 2 diabetes patients in California. The study aims to address the existing gaps in the literature by conducting large population-based studies at the state level with high...

Jason Su - Associate Researcher, Public Health

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

In this project, the University of California, Berkeley and ResMed will use the ResMed target population in Southern California SoCal to study the impacts of (1) criteria air pollutant emissions from locomotive and port craft operations and (2) air toxics from point, area and mobile sources on daily rescue medication...

Jason Su - Associate Researcher, Public Health

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

The goal of this study is to build upon previous work by examining statewide air pollution exposure and life expectancy disparities across generations and within communities. The specific objectives of the research are as follows: 1. Conduct a systematic literature review, using peer-reviewed journal papers to identify effects of...

Jason Su - Associate Researcher, Public Health

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Develop daily air pollution surfaces of criteria pollutants (NO2, PM2.5 and O3) and air toxics ((benzene, 1,3-butadiene, chromium, lead, nickel and zinc) for years 1990-2019 across California through advanced machine learning D/S/A algorithm. Identify dose-response relationships between preterm birth (PTB)/low birth weight (LBW) and short...

Ian Swinburne - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Day-to-day health of the eye relies on the accumulation of the eye’s internal fluid being balanced by release of excess fluid or pressure. The fluid’s flow and pressure help keep the eye’s tissues healthy and the correct size and shape. Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness, is usually...

Ian Swinburne - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Cells integrate extracellular cues (biochemical or mechanical signals) in order to direct specific cellular and tissue wide responses. The correct functioning of organs depends on this communication between cells and their surrounding environment. However, our understanding of how external mechanical inputs, such as increased pressure, direct cell function in health...

Ian Swinburne - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Auditory and vestibular senses are classic and essential senses of the body. The inner ear’s development, or morphogenesis, is a complex and well-regulated process that is guided by cell communication or signaling pathways. When signaling pathways become dysregulated, it often leads to deformities and/or diseases. And in the...

Ian Swinburne - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Most life processes involve cells managing fluids. Our sense of hearing and balance depend on the tight regulation of inner ear fluid (endolymph) volume and pressure. Increased endolymph volume and pressure can lead to the development of deafness and balance disorders. Our previous work in zebrafish embryos has shown that...

Michi Taga - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Microbes live in nearly every environment on the planet, including on and within other organisms. Furthermore, microbes form complex communities in these ecosystems where they cooperate or compete for valuable resources. In the Taga lab, we study microbial community interactions by focusing on a family of nutrients called corrinoids (the...

Michi Taga - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Microbial communities profoundly influence critical processes ranging from human health, plant health, and even how foods taste. One primary way that microbes interact is by sharing nutrients. In the Taga lab, we focus on the Vitamin B12 family of nutrients, known as corrinoids. Corrinoids are enzyme cofactors used by many...

Lee Tan - Professor, Neurosurgery- Spine

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

UCSF is a leading center for the American Spine Registry, a nationwide initiative focused on collecting patient data to enhance care for individuals undergoing cervical and lumbar surgeries. Our research team investigates the outcomes of minimally invasive surgeries, factors influencing cancer recurrence and complications in spinal tumors, and the effectiveness...

Rebecca Tarvin - Professor , Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Evolutionary transitions underlying phenotypic change are difficult to study because they often occur over millions of years. However, the fruit fly has a short generation time and a small genome that is well annotated and cheap to sequence. We used a large-scale experimental evolution approach to evolve toxin-sequestering...

Rebecca Tarvin - Professor , Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Tarvin Lab studies how and why poison frogs don’t poison themselves. We aim to measure the effect of toxin consumption on frog health and chemical defenses through toxin feeding experiments paired with phenotypic assays (health monitoring, jumping challenges) and genomic assessment (RNA and DNA sequencing...

Rebecca Tarvin - Professor , Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Amphibians -- frogs, salamanders, and caecilians -- exhibit a stunning variety of chemical defenses, ranging from antimicrobial peptides to antipredator neurotoxins and biological glues. Amphibian glues are the least-studied of these defenses. Additionally, the methods used to measure amphibian stickiness are not standardized, with some researchers gluing together beer cans to...

Rebecca Tarvin - Professor , Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Amphibians -- frogs, salamanders, and caecilians -- exhibit a stunning variety of chemical defenses, ranging from antimicrobial peptides to antipredator neurotoxins and biological glues! These defenses generally co-occur with physiological, morphological, and behavioral adaptations that sometimes exhibit convergence with distantly related taxa. However, research into amphibian chemical defense has been far...

Frederic Theunissen - Professor, Psychology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Our laboratory studies vocal communication in animals and would like to develop an automatic classifier for bird calls using advanced machine learning techniques...

Frederic Theunissen - Professor, Psychology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The apprentice(s) will prepare and analyze neural tissue to assist graduate students and staff scientists with ongoing projects. This will include slicing, mounting (on microscope slides), and imaging of brain tissue to verify where electrodes were placed during electrophysiological recordings, as well as other projects. Apprentice(s) will learn...

Frederic Theunissen - Professor, Psychology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Project Description: The zebra finch has a very rich vocal repertoire of communication calls that are used in distinct behavioral contexts: peer recognition and localization, mate interactions, offspring care, etc. We previously gathered a huge bank of these calls, classifying them along semantic categories, i.e. groups of calls with the...

Hannah R. Thompson - Professor, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

School recess is an evidence-backed approach to increase school-based opportunities for students to play, accrue necessary physical activity, and socialize with peers, to the benefit of their physical, academic, and socioemotional health. As such, the Centers for Disease Control recommend at least 20 min of daily recess in...

Denis Titov - Assistant Adjunct Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

ATP powers most energy-consuming reactions in cells. While ATP has a short half-life, the demand for ATP also fluctuates. Thus, ATP or energy homeostasis in cells needs to be appropriately regulated. ATP homeostasis has to perform at least three tasks: allow energy generation from ATP hydrolysis, maintain stable...

Denis Titov - Assistant Adjunct Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

A distinct metabolic phenotype in cancers is the alteration of glucose metabolism. In general, most cells in the body derive their ATP from respiration. However, most cancer cells generate a substantial fraction of their ATP through glycolysis thereby converting their glucose to lactate and exhibit lower respiration activity. The ability...

Denis Titov - Assistant Adjunct Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Aging is the greatest risk factor for numerous chronic conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegeneration. Once thought to be an uncontrollable stochastic process due to an accumulation of damage over time, genes and regulatory networks have been discovered that modulate the rate of aging. Supported by data in...

Marta Truchado- Garcia - Project Scientist, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Despite dramatically different body architectures, animals share common signaling pathways and transcriptional networks that regulate their development, a core “genetic toolkit.” Asymmetries are essential for proper organization and function of organ systems, and we aim to examine the toolkit that underlies left-right asymmetry (LRA) in different animal groups. Genetic...

Marta Truchado- Garcia - Project Scientist, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Ctenophores (from Greek, meaning "comb-bearing") are gelatinous marine invertebrates that might be mistaken for medusae. However, they can be easily identified by their eight longitudinal 'comb rows' of ciliary bundles, which are used for locomotion. Like cnidarians, ctenophores possess multiple nerve nets; however, they exhibit several unique features that...

Winston Tseng - Research Scientist, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

PROJECT 1. The Central Valley towns of Allensworth is partnering with Gadgil Lab and Health Research for Action at UC Berkeley on a research project funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and National Alliance for Water Innovation. This project is about assessing community perspectives on water safety, community education, and...

Winston Tseng - Research Scientist, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

PROJECT 2. The environmental health project is focused on the program evaluation of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health/National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health-Education and Research Center (COEH/NIOH-ERC) across the campuses of UC Berkeley, UCSF, and UC Davis. The purpose of the Center for...

Winston Tseng - Research Scientist, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The goal of the project is to conduct an evaluation of the Zoosiab program, a community-based prevention and early intervention program that aims to prevent and/or reduce further mental health problems and social isolation among Hmong elders by strengthening sense of community and social engagement, improving both psychological...

Winston Tseng - Research Scientist, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The purpose of the project is to monitor and increase the visibility of Pacific Islander (PI) health disparities and align local health department efforts in the counties of San Francisco, Alameda, and San Mateo to be more inclusive and effective in serving PI communities. The project activities include conducting a...

Jack Tseng - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Bone crushing dogs were a diverse and successful subfamily of canids that thrived throughout North America for nearly 30 million years. As bone crushing dogs evolved they show convergent features with hyaenas in their cranial anatomy (i.e. a large sagittal crest and domed forehead to dissipate stress). While the skull...

Jack Tseng - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

With over 260 recognized extant species, the order Carnivora is one of the most diverse mammalian groups today, with a history tracing back approximately 60 million years. Crown carnivorans are divided into two suborders: Feliformia (cats, genets, hyenas, mongooses, etc.) and Caniformia (dogs, bears, raccoons, weasels, skunks, seals, etc.). Despite...

Jack Tseng - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Studying vertebral measurements and trabeculae's shape and orientation can provide a more comprehensive understanding of how rodent groups adapted to their specific environments and lifestyles. Quantifying the gross morphological variation of each rodent group through vertebral measurements can provide information about weight-bearing capacity, stability, strength, mobility, and flexibility. Additionally...

Jack Tseng - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Human actions and infrastructure are impacting biodiversity in real time, rapidly changing environments, modifying ecological interactions, and introducing new selection pressures that living organisms have never before encountered. To develop effective, targeted conservation strategies, we need to understand how anthropogenic actions, infrastructure, and management decisions influence evolution. One of the...

Neil Tsutsui - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The experimental removal of introduced species can provide unparalleled opportunities to examine community reassembly. Invader-removal experiments, for example, can clarify how recovery is influenced by processes acting within a given system or alternatively reflects processes acting at larger spatial scales. Despite the obvious value of such studies, surprisingly few...

Gustavo Valbuena - Professor, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

The necessity for integrating health equity concepts into medical education is critical now more than ever considering the recent years marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened awareness of racial injustices. These events have highlighted the critical disparities in health outcomes across marginalized communities, emphasizing the urgent need for...

Maryam Vareth - Researcher, Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS)

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Our project focuses on developing a clinician-facing platform designed to enhance the lives of individuals with diabetes. By integrating real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and blood pressure (BP) data into a dynamic, interactive dashboard, we empower healthcare professionals with comprehensive insights into patient health, enabling more personalized and...

Jose Pablo Vazquez-Medina - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Oxidative damage to mitochondria has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes, stroke, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and many other metabolic syndrome disorders. Recent work shows that deletion of the antioxidant protein peroxiredoxin 6 (PRDX6) dysregulates mitochondrial function. PRDX6 is a multi-functional enzyme that expresses at least 2...

Jose Pablo Vazquez-Medina - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project seeks to characterize cells isolated from the blubber of northern elephant seal pups during the post-weaning fasting period. Elephant seal pups nurse from their mothers for ~1 month, after which they are abruptly weaned and carry out a terrestrial post-weaning fast for several months prior to...

Jose Pablo Vazquez-Medina - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The focus of this project is to develop tissue culture models to answer mechanistic questions that are relevant to physiological responses during diving and under stress conditions in sea turtles. This project will examine sea turtles’ adaptations to hypoxia by characterizing gene expression and reactive oxygen species generation under differential...

Jose Pablo Vazquez-Medina - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The aim of this project is to examine the impact of acute and chronic glucocorticoids (GC) on marine mammal muscle cells. Environmental and ecological stressors increase the concentration of circulating GC potentially affecting an individual’s behavior, physiology, and fitness. However, the consequences of chronic GC exposure remain elusive in many...

Julia Walsh - Professor Emerita, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Learn how to read and assess draft laws submitted to California Legislature that are aimed at alleviating climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and related issues for their potential Health impact on Environmental/Climate Justice (EJ/CJ) communities. This information will strengthen the ability of CJ Advocacy Groups to...

Ian Wang - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

What makes some groups of animals species rich, while other groups are species poor? This project will examine the diversity of spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus), a group of 100+ described species that range across North and Central America. We will quantify the phenotypic, ecological, and genetic diversity of spiny lizards...