LGR Awards Seed Funding to COVID-19 Projects at UC Berkeley and UCSF

The Laboratory for Genomics Research (LGR), a collaboration between UC Berkeley/UCSF (IGI) and GlaxoSmithKline, has focused the Excellence in Research Award (ERA) to fund ten COVID-19 research projects at UC Berkeley and UCSF. The projects are:

• Exploring SARS-CoV-2 viruses using CRISPR-based yeast recombineering.
  Raul Andino and Hiten Madhani, UCSF.
• Epigenome editing: a new prophylactic SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic.
  Luke Gilbert, UCSF and Jonathan Weissman, Whitehead Institute.
• Inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 virulence protein function using functional genomics and structural biology.
  Britt Glaunsinger, UC Berkeley.
• Discovering and targeting the RNA structural code underlying SARS-CoV-2 life-cycle.
  Hani Goodarzi, UCSF.
• Identification of host-dependency factors for SARS-CoV-2.
  Nevan Krogan, UCSF.
• Detection of active SARS-CoV-2 infections in crude and complex biofluids.
  Markita Landry, UC Berkeley.
• Rapid, low-cost, high-throughput viral and metagenome sequencing of COVID-19 patient samples for outbreak surveillance.
  Liana Lareau and Stacia Wyman, UC Berkeley.
• A Cas9-based shuttle enhancing cellular import and nuclear localization of plasmid DNA as an adjuvant of non-viral SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccines entering human trials.
  Alex Marson, UCSF and Ross Wilson, UC Berkeley. Read more >
• The QCRG structural consortium: targeting the host-pathogen interface.
  Oren Rosenberg, UCSF.
• Determining factors that inhibit the interaction between COVID19 and its receptor on lung epithelial cells.
  Robert Stroud, UCSF.

The LGR, located adjacent to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, was established in 2019. It is a state-of-the-art functional genomics laboratory for CRISPR technologies.

Given the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, the LGR is giving this year’s ERA funding to projects that will rapidly address COVID-19. Research results are expected in 6–12 months. Each award is approximately $100K, accelerating the rate of COVID-19 research being done in the Bay Area.

This work is funded by the Laboratory for Genomics Research (LGR), a collaboration between UC Berkeley/UCSF (IGI) and GlaxoSmithKline. 

By Hope Henderson

Hope Henderson holds a B.A. in Biology from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Molecular & Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the IGI in 2019 to work in science communication. In addition to serving as IGI’s main writer, she plans content strategy and manages IGI’s social media, illustration, and translation.