Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Awards $21 Million to 21 Berkeley Researchers
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub announced today (Jan. 11) the second cohort of scientists to be named CZ Biohub Investigators, 21 of whom are UC Berkeley faculty members.
The investigator competition, open to faculty members at Stanford University, UC San Francisco and Berkeley, awards $1 million in unrestricted funds over five years to each investigator, with the goal of building engaged, collaborative communities of Bay Area scientists to undertake creative and innovative research that will help solve the biggest challenges in biomedicine.
This second cohort of 86 awardees, receiving a total of $86 million over five years, was chosen from nearly 700 applicants through a competitive process judged by nationally recognized external reviewers and a blue-ribbon selection advisory committee. The first cohort of 47 investigators — 13 from Berkeley, five of whom have been reappointed as investigators this year — was announced in 2017.
The new CZ Biohub investigators are:
- Hillel Adesnik, associate professor of molecular and cell biology
- Jennifer Ahern, associate professor of epidemiology
- Sarah Chasins, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences
- Yvette Fisher, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology
- Daniel Fletcher, the Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems, professor of bioengineering and faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Hernan Garcia, assistant professor of physics
- Lin He, professor of molecular and cell biology
- Amy Herr, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor in Berkeley Bioengineering
- Nilah Ioannidis, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences
- Britt Koskella, associate professor of integrative biology
- Markita Landry, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering
- Liana Lareau, assistant professor of bioengineering
- Dipti Nayak, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology
- Ziad Obermeyer, the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management
- Amy Pickering, the Blum Center Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering
- Elizabeth Purdom, associate professor of statistics
- Daniel Rokhsar, professor of molecular and cell biology and of physics
- Alanna Schepartz, the T. Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and professor of molecular and cell biology
- Aaron Streets, assistant professor of bioengineering
- Srigokul Upadhyayula, assistant professor in residence of molecular and cell biology
- Laura Waller, the Ted Van Duzer Endowed Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
“We are both proud of, and humbled by, the extraordinary work of our faculty members —changemakers from a diverse array of departments across our campus who have been chosen to receive this generous and essential funding,” said Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ. “Now, more than ever, CZ Biohub’s mission to combat and prevent disease is perfectly aligned with our university’s commitment to advancing the greater good through research, public service, and education.”
“These new investigators will pursue the ideas that excite them most and address scientific questions they consider fundamental,” said CZ Biohub president Joe DeRisi.