Russell Vance

Professor; HHMI Investigator

Dept of Molecular & Cell Biology

Research Group

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Contact

(510) 643-2795

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Research Bio

The Vance Lab is interested in all aspects of the complex interrelationship between pathogens and their hosts. In particular, they apply the modern tools of biology and genetics to answer a variety of questions at a molecular level: how is the presence of pathogenic bacteria sensed by hosts? Are pathogenic bacteria distinguished from harmless bacteria, and if so, how? What innate immune mechanisms protect cells from pathogens? How do cells coordinate defenses that are appropriate for various categories of pathogens? What mechanisms have pathogens evolved to evade host defenses?

Research Expertise and Interest

immunology, microbiology, infectious disease, molecular and cell biology

In the News

How an Infectious Disease Researcher Stays Grounded During Uncertain Times

Berkeley professor hopes to apply insights from studying the immune system’s response to bacteria that cause tuberculosis and dysentery into other areas affecting public health, such as cancer.

Silencing the Silencer: a new strategy to fight cancer

Russell Vance, PhD, Professor of Immunology and Pathogenesis in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, studies the immune system’s production of Interferons, a type of protein that normally helps trigger the immune response to viruses. With support from the Bakar Fellowship Program, he is developing a way to disable cancer’s ability to block interferon production.

UC Berkeley research led to Nobel Prize-winning immunotherapy

Immunologist James P. Allison today shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for groundbreaking work he conducted on cancer immunotherapy at UC Berkeley during his 20 years as director of the campus’s Cancer Research Laboratory.

Mouse immune system protein and invading bacterium

How the Immune System Identifies Invading Bacteria

Never-before-seen images of mouse immune system proteins and bacterial bits reveal an inspection strategy that identifies pathogens.

The yin-yang of cancer and infectious disease

Doctors have had great success using vaccines to boost the immune system to fight infectious diseases like smallpox and measles, but only recently have immune system boosters been tried against cancer.

3 researchers in lab looking at monitors

Aduro Biotech helps launch new immunotherapy, vaccine effort

UC Berkeley cancer immunologists are teaming up with colleagues working on infectious disease to create a new Immunotherapeutics and Vaccine Research Initiative.

graphic of green lines on black background

NIH awards UC Berkeley $7.2 million to advance brain initiative

The National Institutes of Health today announced its first research grants through President Barack Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, including three awards to the University of California, Berkeley, totaling nearly $7.2 million over three years.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute names three new campus investigators

Nicole King, Russell Vance and Michael Rape took different routes to UC Berkeley’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, but they’ve ended up with one of the mostly highly sought positions at any American university: a fully subsidized appointment, with added research funds, as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator.

Teaching

Courses taught during the three most recent terms

2026 Spring

Senior Research Thesis [MCELLBI 191]
Supervised Independent Study and Research [MCELLBI 199]
Advanced Immunology [MCELLBI 250]
The Regulation of Immune System Development and Function [MCELLBI 251]
Research Review in Immunology and Pathogenesis: Immunology, Microbiology, and Genetics of Bacterial [MCELLBI 259N]
Research [MCELLBI 292]
Supervised Independent Study [MCELLBI 99]
Bacterial Pathogenesis [MCELLBI C103]
Honors Research [MCELLBI H196A]
Honors Research [MCELLBI H196B]
Bacterial Pathogenesis [PLANTBI C103]

2025 Fall

Supervised Independent Study and Research [MCELLBI 199]
The Regulation of Immune System Development and Function [MCELLBI 251]
Research Review in Immunology and Pathogenesis: Immunology, Microbiology, and Genetics of Bacterial [MCELLBI 259N]
Research [MCELLBI 292]
Supervised Independent Study [MCELLBI 99]
Honors Research [MCELLBI H196A]
Honors Research [MCELLBI H196B]

2025 Spring

Supervised Independent Study and Research [MCELLBI 199]
The Regulation of Immune System Development and Function [MCELLBI 251]
Research Review in Immunology and Pathogenesis: Immunology, Microbiology, and Genetics of Bacterial [MCELLBI 259N]
Research [MCELLBI 292]
Supervised Independent Study [MCELLBI 99]
Honors Research [MCELLBI H196A]
Honors Research [MCELLBI H196B]