Next week is National Postdoc Appreciation Week! UC Berkeley’s Visiting Scholars and Postdoc Affairs (VSPA) Office organized PostdocFest to celebrate the essential, hard work postdocs do to keep scientific research moving forward. At the event, Dr. Alexandra Kent (postdoc, UC Berkeley) accepted the Postdoc Achievement… Read More »Dr. Alexandra Kent accepts Postdoc Achievement Award
NSF C-GEM researchers and collaborators found a novel pathway for protein labeling using engineered aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases (aaRS) and non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs). In the absence of their cognate tRNAs, engineered aaRSs can release reactive ncAA-AMP intermediates that covalently label nearby proteins. This system for proximity-dependent… Read More »Repurposing Engineered Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases for Proximity-Dependent Protein Labeling through the Release of Aminoacyl-AMP Intermediate (ACS Chem Biol, 2026)
On Saturday, NSF C-GEM participated in the 6th Annual Kits Cubed STEM Fair on the front lawn of Oakland Technical High School. NSF C-GEM scientists demonstrated the science of biopolymers to over 3000 attendees using “Pasta-mers,” which demonstrate how polymer sequence and shape inform function.… Read More »NSF C-GEM brings polymer science to the Kits Cubed STEM Fair
This week, Thomas Li (graduate student, UC Berkeley) presented his research at Quantum-Si’s “Precision Proteomics: Sequencing Proteins with Single-Molecule Resolution” seminar at UC Berkeley. Congratulations to Thomas for his presentation!
C-GEM talked to Emily Hoff, PhD, and Hannah Dedmon, PhD, about their experiences at national labs. Dr. Hoff is a Staff Scientist in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Dr. Dedmon is a postdoctoral researcher in Computational Materials Sciences at Sandia… Read More »Recap: NSF C-GEM Chats Careers at National Labs
Welcome to the 2026 cohort of Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) scholars! This year, we are hosting four scholars across UC Berkeley, Cornell and Yale. Scott Krajewski (University of Puget Sound) will be mentored by Yiran Zhang (graduate student, Miller Lab). Helen Ngo (Evergreen Valley… Read More »NSF C-GEM welcomes sixth cohort of summer undergraduates
On Tuesday, C-GEM researchers—Vincent Chim (graduate student, UC Berkeley), Helena Roberts-Mataric (graduate student, UC Berkeley), Izzi Piper (graduate student, UC Berkeley), and Qi Xie (postdoc, UC Berkeley)—participated in Community Resources for Science’s (CRS) Bay Area Scientists Inspiring Students (BASIS) program. C-GEM partnered with CRS to… Read More »NSF C-GEM brings polymer science to Bay Area elementary schoolers
By Alexandra Kent The goal of C-GEM is to generate ribosomally synthesized, sequence-defined polymers using a diverse set of non-natural monomers. Although ribosomes are known to incorporate some unnatural monomers, the basis for observed differences in incorporation efficiencies of different stereoisomers remains poorly understood. In… Read More »Co-Translational Incorporation of (R)- and (S)-β2-Hydroxy Acids In Vitro: A Structural and Biochemical Study on the E. coli Ribosome (J Am Chem Soc, 2026)
By Chintan Soni Proteins are powerful and versatile molecules with immense potential in medicine and the materials industry, but they are built from just 20 natural α-amino acids, linked through an α- amide backbone, limiting the range diversity of structures and functions they can achieve.… Read More »Co-Translational Incorporation of (R)- and (S)-β2-Hydroxyacids In Vivo: Directed Evolution of Efficient Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases (J Am Chem Soc, 2026)
Left: (left to right) Christopher Alabi (Senior Investigator, Cornell), Abhishek Chatterjee (Senior Investigator, Boston College), Alex Solivan (graduate student, UC Berkeley), Taylor Dover (graduate student, Yale), Meghna Bajaj (graduate student, Cornell), Carly Schissel (Assistant Professor, Penn State, former C-GEM postdoctoral scholar).Right: Meghna Bajaj holding her… Read More »NSF C-GEM Represents at 2026 Peptides GRC