The prion-like spreading of tau aggregation is thought to drive progression of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease and other so-called “tauopathies”. The mechanisms by which tau aggregates spread between cells are unclear – but an understanding of the specific…
Dr. Günter Blobel, a pioneer of modern cell biology who won the Nobel Prize for discovering signals in proteins that determine their localization in the cell, sadly passed away this February. Passionate about science till the end, he left an enormous legacy of discoveries, and of trainees he…
In an editorial in Translational Cancer Research, Kampmann lab postdoctoral fellow Dr. Poornima Ramkumar and Dr. Martin Kampmann highlight the relevance of genetic interaction maps for cancer therapy. Genetic interaction maps systematically reveal functionally related genes, and were first…
While many genomes from healthy humans and patients have been sequenced, we still lack a systematic understanding how human genes function in health and disease, and how they interact in pathways. Interactions of human genes can be elucidated using systematic genetic interaction maps, using an…
UCSF colleagues Dr. Martin Kampmann and Dr. James Fraser were awarded a New Frontier Research Award from the Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research to pioneer a new technology platform.
CRISPR-based genetic screens are a powerful technology to elucidate disease mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic strategies. However, the experimental design of a successful screen remains a challenge. Graduate student Tamas Nagy and Martin Kampmann developed a simulation tool for these…
Martin Kampmann was featured as an Emerging Investigator in an annual Special Issue of Chemical Communications, the journal by the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was recognized for his contributions to the development of innovative genetic screening technologies in mammalian cells, and their…
Ruilin Tian, a Biophysics PhD student in the Kampmann lab, was awarded the Tau consortium fellowship. The Tau Consortium is an international group of clinical and basic scientists who work together to understand, treat, and cure tau-related neurodegenerative diseases (tauopathies).
Dr. Martin Kampmann outlines a new strategy to investigate neurodegenerative diseases in a Perspective in press at Trends in Molecular Medicine. He co-developed a research platform based on CRISPR technology that enables activation and repression of each gene in human cells. This platform paves the…
The childhood blood cancer B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) responds to treatment with dexamethasone in ~90% of patients, but there are few therapeutic options in children resistant to dexamethasone. The mechanism by which dexamethasone kills B-ALL cancer cells, and the…
