Michael B. Eisen

Research Expertise and Interest

genomics, genome sequencing, bioinformatics, animal development

Research Description

Michael B. Eisen is a Professor of Genetics and Development. The Eisen Lab studies how the genomic sequences that control gene expression function and evolve. They are driven by a desire to understand the molecular basis of organismal diversity, and the belief that many differences in physiology, morphology and behavior arise from changes in gene regulation. Their ultimate goal is to be able to interpret the regulatory information encoded in genomic DNA, so that they can routinely identify regulatory sequences, discern their function, predict the consequences of their perturbation, and reconstruct how they evolved.

They are a hybrid computational and experimental lab who couple genome-scale computational and experimental analysis of gene regulation in Drosophila melanogaster and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with extensive analysis of comparative sequence data and experimental analysis of species closely related to these model systems. They focus on short evolutionary timescales where it is possible to couple specific changes in genome sequences with alterations in gene regulation and expression.

See eisenlab.org

In the News

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.
February 2, 2022
Adele Peters
If everyone on the planet hypothetically stopped eating meat, the shift wouldn't just reduce new emissions. A new study calculates that if animal agriculture was phased out, it would also unlock substantial "negative emissions," helping shrink greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so dramatically that the world could reach net zero emissions for decades even if other pollution continued unabated. The study, coauthored by Stanford University biochemistry professor emeritus Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen, a professor of genetics and development at UC Berkeley, calculates the climate impacts of different scenarios in the food system, including what would happen if the world phased out animal agriculture over the next 15 years. This story appeared in several media outlets. For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News.
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