URAP

Ian Wang - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Understanding how phenotypic variation is generated and maintained in natural populations is a fundamental goal in biology. We are studying the evolution of color and other phenotypic traits in Aegean wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii), an island-dwelling lizard native to the Greek Cycladic islands. Our goal is to understand how...

Ian Wang - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Genetic diversity is crucial for adaptation and may be a key factor that shapes species responses to climate change, habitat loss, and other stressors. Recently, the California Conservation Genomics Project (CCGP) has gathered genomic data for over two hundred species across California in order to inform conservation efforts. This dataset...

Ian Wang - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

This research investigates the genetic basis of lizard coloration, which is an ideal trait for studying evolution. Animal coloration is divided into pigments and structural colors. Pigments, often red and yellow, are small particles that directly absorb and reflect light of different colors. Structural colors, often blue, are caused by...

Mary Wildermuth - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

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

Powdery mildew is an obligate biotrophic fungus that infects a broad variety of plants including plants of agronomic (e.g. grapevine) and ornamental (e.g. roses) import. It has lost many essential metabolic pathways and relies on the plant for these compounds. We are interested in figuring out the powdery mildew genes...

Christine Wildsoet - Professor, Optometry

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

Myopia or short-sightedness has become the focus of increasing concern as its prevalence steadily climbs. Figures of around 90% have been recorded for some Asian university student populations and a recent US-based study also reported a dramatic increase in the prevalence of myopia, especially among AfroAmericans. Myopia is...

Christine Wildsoet - Professor, Optometry

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

This research has a number of different aspects. One aspect involves collection of optical images of the back of the eye, using an advanced high resolution SD-OCT imagining machine. Initial work will involve images already collected. It will involves working with large amounts of data in excel, using smoothing...

Christine Wildsoet - Professor, Optometry

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

Myopia or short-sightedness has become the focus of increasing concern as its prevalence steadily climbs. Figures of around 90% have been recorded for some Asian university student populations and a recent US-based study also reported a dramatic increase in the prevalence of myopia, especially among AfroAmericans. Myopia is...

Christine Wildsoet - Professor, Optometry

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

There is increasing interest in the role of sunlight and light exposure in the development of myopia. In this project, we are using a wearable light sensor/activity monitor (Actiwatch), for human subjects. The sensor will record the intensity of light subjects are exposed to, and will allow us to...

Carol Wilson - Research Botanist, University and Jepson Herbaria

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

Mistletoes are shrubby, aerial-branch parasites belonging to order Santalales. Most are hemiparasites that obtain water and mineral nutrients and a portion of their carbon from the xylem sap of their host plants. Although they can be forest pathogens, particularly to conifer tree species that are under stress from drought...

Carol Wilson - Research Botanist, University and Jepson Herbaria

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

Carol A. Wilson is conducting research that examines phylogeny, biogeography, endemism, and ecology of a lineage of Iris that mostly occur in a biodiversity hotspot (California Floristic Province). Iris comprise a highly diverse genus of perennials that provide significant food resources including nectar, pollen, arils, and underground structures, as well...

Ashley Wolf - Professor, Public Health

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

Bacteroidetes is one of the main bacterial groups of the human gut microbiome. Although several reference strains related to species such Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bacteroides fragilis and Phocaicola vulgatus have been investigated and even used as model organisms to understand the gut microbiome, strain level diversity is extensive and remains to...

Ashley Wolf - Professor, Public Health

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

The gut microbiome is a complex community of microbes that have unique enzymatic capabilities. Some gut bacteria metabolize sialic acids that are found in the diet and/or produced by host cells. We have identified putative genes that encode enzymes responsible for sialic acid metabolism. This project will use cloning...

Ashley Wolf - Professor, Public Health

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

Dietary ingredients can provide fuel to the gut microbiome and influence the abundance of particular bacterial species in the gut. During heating steps in food processing, Maillard reaction products (MRPs) are formed from non-enzymatic reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars. As one of the MRPs, ε-fructoselysine (FL...

Qing Zhou - Professor, Psychology

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

Professor Qing Zhou’s Family and Culture Lab (https://zhoulab.berkeley.edu/) aims to investigate cultural, contextual, and temperament influences on socio-emotional/mental health, academic, executive function, and language development from childhood to young adulthood, with a particular focus on children/youth of immigrant families. We have multiple ongoing research projects investigating...