URAP

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Project Overview El Salvador is undergoing rapid transformations driven by cryptocurrency-driven urbanization (“crypto urbanism”) and the recent lifting of the metal mining ban. These developments pose significant threats to the country’s protected natural regions, including biodiversity hotspots and critical ecosystems. This project investigates the socio-environmental impacts of these...

Mary Power - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

The Angelo Coast Range Reserve is a UC Berkeley Natural Reserve System site in Mendocino County, on the South Fork of the Eel River. Angelo is the site of numerous historical and current UC Berkeley research studies, and collections by UC Berkeley Natural History museums. The proposed research project is...

Ndola Prata - Professor, Public Health

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research project is focused on improving the lives of Black Birthing people in California. The postpartum period, or care after birth is one of the most important periods during the birthing cycle, yet there are limited resources during that time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Ndola Prata - Professor, Public Health

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

IUD’s are one of the most effective contraceptives to prevent unintended pregnancies. However, pain remains to be a significant barrier for access. Our qualitative study aims to investigate providers’ perceptions, beliefs, and practices to manage pain during IUD insertions...

Ndola Prata - Professor, Public Health

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Suicide is a serious public health problem globally. There are about 800,000 deaths by suicide globally. Of these, 77% are in low-and-middle income countries. For each suicide, 35 - 140 people are affected, but very few seek care. Individuals bereaved by suicide also experience stigma and therefore are reluctant...

Elizabeth Purdom - Professor, Statistics

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

This project involves developing statistical methodologies to analyze data from single-cell sequencing of individual patients. Single-cell sequencing of mRNA measures the amount of mRNA of each gene found in individual cells. It measures the diversity of mRNA within cells, and when performed on many individuals can allow us...

Kamalini Ranasinghe - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

The goal of this project is to investigate the associations between anormal protein depositions in the brain and how these may change the neuronal firing in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We use magnetoencephalography (MEG) electroencephalography (EEG) to record the activity of neurons and molecular imaging to quantify amyloid...

Eva Raphael - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections worldwide, particularly among urban-dwelling women. UTIs are primarily caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli). UTIs may cause a range of complications from mild discomfort to severe kidney infections. As antibiotic resistance increases, treatment strategies for UTIs become ineffective...

Onja Razafindratsima - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Seed dispersal, the movement of seeds away from parent plants, is vital for plant population dynamics and habitat colonization. In tropical forests, most plants rely on frugivorous animals for dispersal via endozoochory, where animals consume fruits and defecate viable seeds at favorable microsites. The dispersal patterns of frugivores depend on...

Onja Razafindratsima - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Forest regeneration and seed dispersal are essential ecological processes for maintaining biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and carbon sequestration. However, these processes are being threatened by agricultural expansion and defaunation. As a first step toward understanding the importance of animal seed dispersers in forest regeneration, this project aims to assess the diversity...

Onja Razafindratsima - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

What mechanism drives primate foraging decisions in their natural environments? How do these decisions influence the outcomes of the vital ecosystem services they provide? Our research group is interested in addressing such fundamental questions, contributing to elucidating the ecological and evolutionary aspects of primate behavior and crafting conservation solutions for...

Carolina Reisenman - Associate Researcher, Molecular and Cell Biology

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

Plants produce many toxic compounds as defense against insect herbivory. Many insects have therefore developed adaptations to counteract the negative effects of toxic compounds. Indeed, some species evolved mechanisms that allow them to use these toxic hosts as private niches, avoiding competition with other insects. In this project the student...

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira - Professor, Public Health

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

Earth rotation was an evolutionary pressure for organisms to evolve circadian rhythms in order to be able to anticipate the rhythmic day/night cycles. These circadian clocks regulate physiological properties such as sleep, immune response and metabolism. Our lab studies circadian clocks in parasites. This project focus on performing bioinformatics...

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira - Professor, Public Health

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

Parasitic diseases cause major health burden worldwide, with over 1 million deaths each year. Despite having the genome of many parasites sequenced, almost half of their genes are of unknown function. There are still major gaps in our understanding of host-parasite interactions and disease transmission by vectors. Our research...

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira - Professor, Public Health

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

The rotation of the Earth has exerted evolutionary pressure on organisms to develop circadian rhythms, enabling them to anticipate day/night cycles. These daily rhythms are observed across all life forms, regulating physiological functions such as sleep, immune response, and metabolism. Our lab focuses on studying circadian clocks in parasites...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

This project is focused on the residential urban gardens of the East Bay and how those gardens impact butterfly communities with a focus on the Western Monarch butterfly. The project covers topics of native and non-native plants, invasive arthropods, urban gardens, and changes in species interactions. This project is...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

In our lab, we are interested in the ecology and evolutionary history of arthropod (insect and spider) species. We mostly study arthropods from Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific, but also species in California and elsewhere. Some are native species, some are recent invasive species, and some are introduced...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Are you interested in science news and social media? In our lab, we study the ecological and evolutionary history of arthropod (insect and spider) species--the "little things that run the earth." We mostly study arthropods from Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific. Our current project aims...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Biodiversity surveys often accumulate many many insect and spider specimens, but it is usually hard to figure out what the species actually are. Many species are not yet described and many are found in an area for the first time, or the species are not yet in DNA databases. In...

Hector Rodriguez - Professor, Public Health

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

The objective of this project is to survey and analyze language access services and infrastructure of 150 safety net primary care practices across California to understand and improve how language access needs are met for patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). This project is funded by the California Health Care...

Hector Rodriguez - Professor, Public Health

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

Quality of care disparities between patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) and patients proficient in English have been well documented. Language barriers between patients and providers can lead to medical errors, poor chronic condition management, and undue difficulty accessing care. LEP status is highly correlated with other risk factors for...

Veerle Rottiers - Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

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

Aging is a process of maturation and decline that affects all organisms. Understanding the conserved mechanisms of aging could lead to new strategies for the prevention of age-associated disease. Sex specific differences in longevity occur throughout the animal kingdom, including in humans. Those differences are proposed to be caused...

Veerle Rottiers - Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

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

Aging affects all organisms. Understanding the conserved mechanisms of aging could lead to new strategies for the prevention and treatment of age-associated disease. C. elegans, a small roundworm, is one of the most widely used model organisms to study aging. Worms live for about 3 weeks making it practical...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

The flux of leaf litter from the riparian zone is a major energy pathway into streams, and, thus, litter breakdown is a critical ecosystem-level process affecting both the carbon and nutrient cycles as well as stream food webs. Leaf litter decomposition is influenced by litter quantity and quality (i.e...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

How could we best manage local water supplies in ways that benefit communities and rivers? Los Angeles County in Southern California imports the majority of its water. After residents use this water, wastewater treatment facilities clean it and then generally discharge it into local streams, such as the Los Angeles...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Climate change is shifting the distribution of the Earth’s water resources spatially and temporally. In most of California, multi-year droughts are projected to increase in frequency and magnitude by the end of the century. Predicting the impacts of drought on freshwater ecosystems remains, however, a key challenge. This is...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

In seasonal wetlands like vernal pools, the hydroperiod fundamentally influences community composition and structure. Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that are wet during the fall and winter, and dry during the spring and summer. They support many endemic plant and animal species, many of which are listed as federally threatened...

Daniel Savson - DVM, Integrative Biology, OLAC

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

The role of the veterinarian in the research environment has become increasingly critical in recent years. Not only are lab animal veterinarians involved in research involving animal health, but in research endeavors as they relate to and intersect with human or public health (e.g., nutrition, cancer studies, and infectious disease...

Hilde Schjerven - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

The Schjerven Lab at UCSF studies the transcription factor Ikaros (encoded by the Ikzf1 gene) and its different biological roles in immune cell development and disease. In a recent collaborative work, we found that the transcription factor Ikaros is expressed in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC), and important for the...

Hilde Schjerven - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

The Schjerven Lab at UCSF studies the transcription factor Ikaros (encoded by the Ikzf1 gene) and its different biological roles in immune cell development and disease. We have found that the transcription factor Ikaros is important in development of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell that is part of...

Hilde Schjerven - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

The Schjerven Lab at UCSF studies the transcription factor Ikaros (encoded by the Ikzf1 gene) and its different biological roles in immune cell development and disease. Ikaros is an important tumor suppressor in B-cell lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and we have multiple projects in our lab to study how...

Marieka Schotland - Executive Director, Public Health

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Innovations for Youth (i4Y) is a cross-disciplinary research-action center that catalyzes on innovative interventions, practices and policies to improve equity and well-being for youth locally and worldwide. Our current portfolio includes work on marginalized youth, youth voice, youth participatory action research, and student mental health and wellbeing...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Keywords: cancer, radiopharmaceutical therapy, targeted alpha therapy, alpha particles, image processing, dosimetry, machine learning, digital autoradiography Radiopharmaceutical therapy with alpha-particle emitters (⍺RPT) is an emerging cancer treatment method that has demonstrated high efficacy in clinical trials for several types of cancer. Improvement of these drugs requires thorough pre-clinical...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Molecular imaging is a powerful method of interrogating biochemical properties of imaging subjects. Particularly in research, we use small animal positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which are combined with x-ray computed tomography (CT). More commonly, these imaging modalities are known as microPET/CT...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Radiotherapy with alpha-emitting nuclides is an extremely promising technique in cancer therapy. The very short range of alpha particles compared to beta particles allows to deliver a much higher therapeutical dose to the lesion, sparing healthy tissue. A fundamental problem with this technique is the inability of current radiation...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Keywords: deep learning, artificial intelligence, prediction, Alzheimer's disease, positron emission tomography, PET, image processing, FDG, glucose metabolism, amyloid Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, and a debilitating condition that affects a large number of aging populations. When symptoms occur, there are a very limited set of...

Steven Seyedin - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

For patients with limited metastatic (stage IV) bladder cancer, high dose, high precision radiation therapy known as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), to all sites of disease can improve cancer outcomes and extend the time to needing additional therapy. However which patients truly benefit from SBRT is unclear. This study...

Michael Shapira - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Toxins play important roles in inter-species interactions, and the ability to overcome them can open new niches. The potential of animal genomes to facilitate such adaptations is limited; instead, toxin resistance in animals is often provided by gut bacteria. Human activity and industry has dramatically increased the prevalence of...

Michael Shapira - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Animal microbiotas are increasingly recognized as essential for host health. The gut microbiota is the richest, and was shown to contribute to diverse host functions. Perturbations in microbiota composition are associated with human disease, raising interest in manipulating the microbiota to promote healthier living or treat pathology. However, current understanding...

Michael Shapira - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Aging involves a multi-system physiological deterioration. In addition to affected tissues, and likely as a consequence, aging also affects the gut microbiota, an extensive microbial community which contributes to diverse host functions. Imbalances in microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, are often associated with pathology, and recent reports indicate that aging...

Michal Shuldman - Assistant Teaching Professor, Integrative Biology

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

This project looks at how undergraduate biology students perceive their instructors' practices in introductory courses at a large research university. While most education reform efforts in biology focus on “inclusive teaching” have been defined by instructors and researchers, there hasn’t been much focus on how students themselves view inclusion. We’re...

Ellen Simms - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Check back for status     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: Full- no new appr needed     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: Full- no new appr needed     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: Full- no new appr needed     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: Full- no new appr needed     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...