Peter Duesberg (Photo credit: Alchetron)

On Tuesday January 13, 2026 MCB faculty member Peter Duesberg, a pioneering retrovirologist, public controversialist, and long-time member of the Berkeley community, passed away peacefully after a five-year struggle with stroke-induced aphasia.
 

Congratulations to BioE PhD students Alonso Torres and Stephanie Brener! Torres received a 2026 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars at UCSF, and Brener and Honorable Mention.

Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology, Dan Portnoy, received the 2025 Excellence in Advising Outstanding Faculty Advisor award from Berkeley’s Council on Advising and Student Services.

Congratulations to bioengineering’s Master’s Programs Manager Joy Ahn! Joy has been received a 2025 Excellence in Advising and Student Services Award for her outstanding support of our master’s students.

Researchers from Adam Arkin's lab, funded by a grant from the Dept. of Health and Human Services, have engineered colonies of good bacteria that can be inhaled to crowd out pathogenic bacteria and combat lung infections without antibiotics.

Congratulations to MCB postdoc Joseph Lobel (Ingolia Lab) on receiving the 2026 RNA Society Scaringe Young Scientist Award. This internationally competitive award honors one postdoc annually who has made a significant contribution to the broad area of RNA research. Read more about the 2026 RNA Society Scaringe Young Scientist Award here. 

Ammon Corl, a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, is highlighted in The New York Times for leading research that revealed the genetic variation behind the side-blotched lizard's unique rock-paper-scissors evolutionary game. Read the full article here. 

As the year draws to a close, we want to take a moment to express our deep gratitude for our MCB community of students, postdocs, staff, faculty, alumni and friends. 2025 has been a year marked by exciting discoveries, shared successes, and the remarkable resilience and dedication of our community. We hope you enjoy our year-end video highlighting some of our 2025 memories together. 

 

 

 

MCB microbiologists from the Portnoy lab team up with BASIS to run a microbiology outreach workshop at the Ellerhorst Elementary School.