Cristhel Temoxtle
Tuberculosis (TB) is a preventable but persistent public health threat that disproportionately affects unhoused individuals, immigrants, and immunocompromised populations. Most people infected with TB have a latent (dormant) form of the disease, meaning they are non-contagious and show no symptoms, yet without treatment, latent TB can progress into a life-threatening active infection. Despite effective treatments being available, many patients face significant barriers to care, including poverty, stigma, language needs, and limited access to health services. This project, conducted in partnership with the Berkeley Free Clinic, uses patient surveys to identify […]
Kylie Huang
Extracellular contractile injection systems (eCIS) are phage tail-like nanomachines that act as microscopic syringes, delivering protein effectors into eukaryotic cells. Recent work has shown that eCIS are modular and can be reprogrammed to carry specific cargo to chosen targets, but current research is largely limited to purified particles or static expression systems. My project investigates how bacterial systems can be engineered to expand the therapeutic potential of eCIS beyond these current approaches, with the long-term goal of enabling localized macromolecule delivery.
Gabi Herrera
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a common yet debilitating side effect experienced by patients undergoing chemotherapy. Primary sensory neurons are particularly vulnerable to neuropathic side effects. Using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), my project seeks to understand how chemotherapy agents alter the cytoskeletal organization of primary sensory neurons. Specifically, I aim to use this cryo-ET data to map damage to the microtubule cytoskeleton, as well as characterize structural damage to critical organelles such as the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum. By identifying these structural changes, my project aims to understand the molecular mechanisms […]
Haleta Ayalew
ZF5.3 and AV5.3 are Cell Permeant Mini Proteins (CPMPs): small molecules engineered to facilitate efficient cargo delivery directly into the cytosol of mammalian cells. A current research question in the Schepartz lab is whether CPMPs can be leveraged to improve the delivery of Cas9 nucleases. The Cas9 class of CRISPR nucleases, at about 160 kDa, are significantly larger than the optimal cargo for CPMP vehicles. Recent work has shown that a different class of Cas nucleases, Cas12, can be miniaturized, leading to smaller proteins with high nuclease activity such as […]
Smridhi Mahajan
Many advanced materials form through self-assembly, a process in which microscopic building blocks spontaneously organize into complex structures. While we often know the initial reactants and final products, the dynamic pathway connecting the two states remains largely unknown. This research aims to achieve three-dimensional tracking of the material formation process in real time via holographic microscopy, an interferometric imaging technique that records both the intensity and phase of light. By reconstructing how particle size and composition evolve in time, this work combines optical imaging with ideas from statistical physics to […]
Rose Yang
Histoplasma capsulatum is a thermally dimorphic fungal pathogen that infects humans and causes histoplasmosis, a disease affecting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide annually. My research focuses on how a family of small, secreted proteins called knottins contributes to Histoplasma virulence. Knottins are cystine-knot proteins that contain a specific protein domain that confers stability. Previous work in the Sil lab discovered 25 knottin genes and found that four have roles in virulence. However, the functions of the other Histoplasma knottins is unknown. My project will investigate the roles of the […]
Jiatong Li
Photons, with their natural parallelism as bosons, low heat generation, and extremely high speed, are an ideal medium for large-scale linear operations. Therefore, photonic computing can be a promising alternative for AI-related hardware because of the neural networks’ heavy reliance on matrix manipulations . However, one major challenge is implementing efficient nonlinear operations in photonic systems. This picture changed in 2025, when Qixin Feng’s group at UC Berkeley successfully developed the Nonlinear Optical Microdevice Array(NOMA), an electro-optical hybrid device that realizes nonlinear responses with femtojoule-level energy consumption using incoherent light. […]
Kian Naini
In Drosophila fly embryos, gene regulatory networks relay spatiotemporal information, forming patterns that shape the adult organism. The goal of my research is to establish a quantitative, model-based view of the development of these embryos. Although embryo-wide models of pattern formation provide important insight, embryonic cells make decisions based on local cues without knowing global concentrations, and single-cell responses to real-time neighboring environments remain largely unexplored. Building on a previously established model in the field, I aim to investigate what factors can explain the reduced variability observed in protein patterns […]
Kamya Malhotra
Less than 1% of the corn grown in America is eaten as corn. Over 95% is field corn, grown for livestock feed and fuel, and it consumes roughly 800,000 gallons of water per acre each season, which is enough to fill nearly two Olympic swimming pools. Corn ethanol, often marketed as a green alternative to fossil fuels, barely breaks even on its energy balance once farming inputs are accounted for. Smarter biofuels start with different feedstocks: grasses, woody crops, and agricultural residues that don’t compete with food or demand the […]
Regina Delgado Acevedo
Derived from mapu (land) and che (people), the term Mapuche translates to “people of the land.” The language spoken by the Mapuche people of south-central Chile, Mapudungun, can be translated as “the speech of the land.”” This shared semantic foundation underscores the central role that mapu plays in Mapuche cultural frameworks. With this premise in mind, this project examines Mapuche sacred landscapes by investigating ritual practice and space-making techniques. The project integrates ethnographic research, linguistic analysis, and archaeological survey in collaboration with a community centered around one of the region’s […]